Religion Dispatches
I am a scholar of religion by profession, but I like to play in technology. So when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for generic top level domains (gTLD) like .com, .org., and .net, asked for proposals for new gTLD, I watched with some fascination. One of the earliest discussions was around allowing “.xxx” to indicate pornography-related sites. However, I am interested in a new round of names…
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When men don’t fear God, they give themselves to evil. This was clearly the case in the latest mass murder. —Ray Comfort As many of us are struggling to find a reason or reasons for the Aurora, Colorado theater shootings in the early morning of Friday, July 20, there is no shortage of pundits offering their own explanations. Maybe the alleged shooter, James Holmes, was depressed after scoring low on exams in his PhD program at the University of C…
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…away from the He-God of the sexist tradition, the problem is clearly not solved. If we’re looking at race and religion as important elements that mass killers have drawn upon for their violent rage, there’s no reason for us to look away from associated cultural constructions of masculinity as a comparably important factor. The sins of our religious fathers Whatever the unique complex of psychosocial, religious, financial, moral, political, or othe…
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…r voice. This whole trial refuses to hear us and I mean hear us, which involves understanding and, moreover, thinking. I think every individual wants to attain wisdom, to be a philosopher, not just people who happen to have studied philosophy. That’s nothing. Formal education is nothing in itself and Lawyer Pavlova is constantly accusing us of not being sufficiently well-educated. I think though that the most important thing is the desire to know…
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…made several statements that have inflamed anti-Muslim attitudes in Pennsylvania—his latest being that he plans to publicly flog a Koran on the Pennsylvania state capitol steps next month in protest of a state resolution to name 2012 the “Year of Religious Diversity.” There is No Such Thing as Islamophobia While these issues have been the subject of debate in segments of the atheist movement for some time, events this month have got me thinking a…
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…he import nor the accuracy of their conclusions on a complex situation involving many individuals.” He notes that he can’t speak to CT’s motivations, but said that he shares their “interest in confirming orthodoxy and uplifting the household of faith.” While Park continues to believe that CT arrived at the wrong conclusions about Jang, he is “encouraged that many other individuals, including a number of qualified and respected theologians, have si…
Read MorePat Robertson isn’t the only evangelical leader who frets about all the kids dressing up in satanic garb for Halloween, or as he calls it, the “festival of the Devil.” Mission America’s Linda Harvey recently argued that the holiday’s satanic origins explain its appeal to “the LGBT world.” Here are a few options religious right leaders would like you to consider. Jesusween. The folks at www.Jesusween.com are hoping to turn Halloween into a “Christ…
Read MoreA headline caught my eye this morning: “Indiana’s Largest Megachurch Faces New Foreclosure Proceedings.” It made me think of Steve Munsey, an Indiana prosperity preacher I watched in a Decatur, Georgia television studio in 2007, pleading for audience members and viewers to give their money to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. As it turns out, the story is about Munsey’s church, Family Christian Center, which claims to have a weekly attendance of…
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…A careful read of the Catholic ethics literature in CHA publications themselves would make clear that a Catholic hospital can even use methotrexate (a drug that can cause an abortion once pregnancy has been established in the uterus) could be sued to treat an ecotopic pregnancy where its mode of action is different and indirect. It has been determined that Methotrexate attacks the DNA in the trophoblastic tissue, not the embryo. Thus its use in ec…
Read More…as when it was crushed and trodden on. He asked the youth to remind themselves that they were like that hundred-dollar bill, with value despite their present condition.” The post includes information about a fundraising campaign to establish Dwayne’s House, a permanent shelter for homeless LGBT youth. Thailand: New LGBT-Rights Political Party in the Works LGBT activists in Thailand are working to create a new political party this year, but say th…
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