Religion Dispatches
…nia only happened fifteen years ago; I wish I could buy my interlocutors a ticket to Sarajevo, and answer them only after their visit. We should not forget that Europe’s violent spasms ended but very recently, and with the death of those generations who intimately recall Nazism and the Holocaust, Soviet Communism and the Gulag, it is possible the temptation to return to ugly ideologies will only increase. Recently, the Boston Review covered the ri…
Read More…t, help the least of these all you want, but nothing you do will buy you a ticket to heaven. You can do all these things and be ever so nice, but if you don’t believe Jesus died for your sins, you’re going to hell.” To those who feel that way I say this: Call those pursuing social justice in this world heretics and deface billboards if it makes you feel better about neglecting the poor and suffering. But I think that Jesus could give two flips abo…
Read More…ality is a sin and that it is one of the worst sins and will surely be our ticket to eternal flames. When that’s been your introduction to a text – you tend to be shy about giving it ultimate authority in your life. But, what has happened for most gay and lesbian Christians is that they have dedicated themselves to in-depth study of the Bible – not just a surface reading. Many books have been written about what the Bible really says about homosexu…
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…equest was also denied citing freedom of speech—though a judge limited the number of protestors that could be present to fifteen. So on August 8, George and several of his strippers decided to turn the tables by holding their own protest in front of the church during Sunday morning services. The Foxhole dancers (some of whom complained of sleep deprivation) did not match Pastor Dunfee’s zeal. Rather than bullhorns, they came equipped with lawn cha…
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…museum in our sense of that word—anyone, male or female, could purchase a ticket on any day the museum was open, and wander freely among the nude statues of pagan deities. Then, just twenty years later in 1754, Pope Benedict XIV created the “Naked Academy” (l’Accademia del Nudo) inside the very palace where the Capitoline collection was housed. The idea was to promote the fine arts, by providing a space in which contemporary artists could sketch…
Read More…candidate and the trouble that ensued from bringing her on the Republican Ticket. Palin has been in full-tilt mode, bringing out her supporters to condemn the movie, in an attempt to deflect the depiction of her performance as a troubled, unstable VP candidate. Palin’s obsession with President Obama’s vetting as a candidate only serves to put the spotlight back on how unprepared Palin was not only as a candidate, but to take the office of vice pr…
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…orporate activist is running for mayor of New York City on the Green Party ticket; the platform of his campaign, a plea for the sanctity of neighborhoods. “Are you in trouble?” he asks. “Yes I am,” she replies, frankly. She looks it. Billy is wearing his “costume,” a white preacher’s collar, black vest front, and bright blue suit. His hair, combed into a pompadour, is dyed blond with dark roots showing. The more she speaks, the more he drifts out…
Read More…ing Bob” La Follette, who ran for the White House on the Progressive party ticket, and whose journal survives to this day, headquartered down by the Essen Haus practically in the shadow of the Wisconsin state capitol. For those of us lucky enough to grow up in the “Moscow of the Midwest,” progressive could mean generally any non-communist member of the Old Left (it is a distressing artifact of my upbringing that I can parse far better than the ave…
Read More…confident that both the Republican Party platform and the Republican Party ticket in 2012 and the foreseeable future will be for the federal marriage amendment, for defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, and for the Defense of Marriage Act.” GOProud opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, but only because it believes decisions on gay marriage should be made at the state level. It does not, however take a position on the merits of gay m…
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…oil fields of Texas, but as a patriotic graduate I joined the military, my ticket out of Louisiana and an opportunity to explore the world. In my fourth year, having become a naval officer, I volunteered for shore duty in Vietnam which would become a turning point in my life. Never had I experienced such violence, suffering, and fear. In the madness of war, my faith became more important and I felt God was calling me to be a priest. I talked to a…
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