Religion Dispatches
…Listen to a podcast of the Ticket 2016, during which I talked about religion in the 2016 presidential campaign with Austin, Texas NPR affiliate KUT’s Ben Philpott and the Texas Tribune’s Jay Root:…
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…ates 24/7 surveillance of citizens. Ever since Mike Pence joined the Trump ticket, I’ve been haunted by Duvall’s character. What would that quiet, white, Christian male authority look like in today’s world, and what kind of society would Commander, oops, President Pence seek to build? As Trump’s troubles grow by the hour so does the urgency of these questions. Online and off, the term Christofascism is creeping into conversations. Christofascism,…
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…on sells and, when consumed, produces fertile opportunities for insight. A ticket to the “Everything Must Change” tour is, somewhat oddly perhaps, a plunge into a pool of progressive partners. Multiethnic churches and urban ministries will play tour hosts. Sojourners magazine is an event co-sponsor—no small potatoes considering the mainstream cachet of Jim Wallis, the founder /editor of Sojourners and author of the chart burner, God’s Politics. An…
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…’ve never laid flowers at a veterans cemetery or followed troop deployment numbers. Doing so would not occur to most. Since the end of the draft and the initiation of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973, veterans have not been distributed widely through civilian communities, and Americans have allowed themselves to support the troops in a distant, spectatorial fashion that may signal gratitude or at least political correctness, but also underwrites a…
Read More…ge’s Dena’iana Center will have to fork over anywhere from $73 for a basic ticket to $255 for a special meet-and-greet. Since these Fox favorites failed to designate how these funds will be spent, here’s a selection of potential charities taken from Charity Navigator’s “Listing of 10 Non-Profits That Make Ebenezer Proud”: * American Association of State Troopers, Association for Disabled Firefighters * California Organization of Police and Sheriff…
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…s on a map, been converted to one that voted 58 percent for the Republican ticket. Blake notes, “There may be a new king when it comes to gerrymandering this cycle, and it’s the North Carolina Republican party.” And so now the rumors are flying that even conservative Shuler will give up his race and take an easier job—perhaps as athletic director at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. A Democratic race without the incumbent would likely dr…
Read More…nt with a values-neutral approach to work, livelihood, and the marketplace? Why does religion play an outsized role in the politics of gay marriage and contraception but apparently has no say when it comes to big-ticket items like national spending and economic policy? That profound disconnect certainly did not originate with Romney, but it may in fact be the key to understanding how he would lead and govern….
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…ssed serious Christian such as Pence even considering a place on the Trump ticket, but when it was offered, he didn’t think twice, yoking the Christian Right to Trump in exchange for a promise to appoint conservative judges and let the right have it’s way with anti-abortion legislation. While publicly Trump presented himself as an ally of the religious right, in private Mayer reports he gleefully mocked their most dearly held goal—banning abortion…
Read More…inding members that gaining entrance to heaven isn’t like buying a lottery ticket. There is no magic to it, no speaking in tongues, no handling snakes, no eternal security. You work hard here on Earth, quietly, diligently, to retire in eternity. Your works are an outward manifestation of your faith, and your faith is what saves you. A young woman wedged in behind an organ calls out, “Somebody pick a hymn,” and somebody else calls back, “How about…
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…s who wish to own a piece of the king himself.” Talismanic objects such as ticket stubs and tour T-shirts are more common; most common of all are venerated images displayed on bedroom walls: on the Bowie fansite Ziggy Stardust Companion, an ardent fan named Madeline proudly displays a blurry snapshot of her “Ziggy wall.”10 (image, upper right). Wall-mounted photo collages are devotional aids—focal points for inner dialogues with the deity, daydrea…
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