Religion Dispatches
…October 14 dawning around the world, new messages have also arrived in the last several hours, like this one from an anonymous poster: Any last minute regrets, Blossom? It’s not too late to back out now and say it’s all a hoax. I truly hope this event turns out as you predicted. God knows how much humanity needs a kick up the arse! History or disappointment beckons! Others accused Goodchild of profiteering on stupidity, while some posters kept the…
Read More…unned by the party? No — recruited by it, and then given trump cards. Late last year, another pro-Stupak Democrat, Parker Griffith of Alabama, decided that he was really a Republican after all. Like other Democrats seeking to play the religion card, he had hired the services of a small circle political consultants who now offer assistance on that “religion-friendly” strategy. (One of the trailblazers of religious political consulting, Mara Vanders…
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…ion about his bank account, credit cards, home address and social security number—was illegally retrieved, and that he was subjected to surveillance and phone-tapping. The church, meanwhile, countered that Behar’s article was a slanderous, sensationalist attack on a legitimate religious organization and part of a much longer history of misunderstanding and persecution that this religious minority has faced since its inception. In keeping w…
Read More…cedented attention. Mayor Mick Cornett has already received 450 emails and phone calls opposing the event. Archbishop Paul Coakley has also condemned the event and called on Catholics to protest if it moves forward. Daniels, naturally, has expressed delight that his antics are finally provoking Church officials. This newfound energy has nothing to do with Daniels and everything to do with the events of last May. An online petition features footage…
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…, were taught Christianity primarily in the context of oppression, second-class Christianity. And we have a great propensity to need to have a second-class among us. When people are disempowered, they are often empowered at someone else’s expense. Whether it’s women or children or gay people. It’s always the same thing, the same thing played out with different people. And how do we break that? How do we get through that? What has to happen is that…
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…y resisted. One became an Episcopalian; the other said he’d go to Mass in New York and a third just said that was the end of Mass for him. Duin suggests that bishops who have imposed sanctions on politicians in other dioceses should pick up the phone and call Wuerl and ask him to extend the penalties to the DC diocese. They are about as likely to be successful as the Catholics who have petitioned the Vatican to excommunicate such Catholics. The Va…
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…essage of the book, which is, “Hey, you know what, we can start shining a flashlight around this possibility space.” If I can sit down and make up 40 completely different versions [of the afterlife], then we could, as a community, make up many hundreds and thousands of versions of what might be going on. The important part is the exploration, instead of the pretense to certainty. You have this philosophical commitment to possibility. But there are…
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…n on the basis of religion or belief system, recognized as sacrosanct by a number of human rights instruments. It must be clear, however, that the right to freedom of religion or belief does not give the individual – as a right-holder – the power to marginalize, suppress or carry out violent acts against other individuals and those in vulnerable situations, such as women or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) co…
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…lence in South Asia to be spurred by incidents of “religious offense” or “blasphemy.” Strengthened by colonial-era laws which make religious offense a crime, sometimes punishable by death, citizens often take matters into their own hands, leading to a bloody cycle of violence and global headlines of mob violence and lynchings. For those of us in the South Asian diaspora, these headlines are painful to read. For some of us, our friends and family b…
Read More…n Paul II, Pope Benedict sent the following text message to Italian mobile phone users: “Let us go forth in the joy of the risen Lord and trusting in his permanent help.” JPII had been texting Italians with a “thought of the day” while he was still alive, so Benedict was simply carrying on this tradition. Pope Benedict has more recently used text messaging to communicate with attendees throughout this year’s World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. H…
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