Religion Dispatches
…sey court has ordered the online dating service eHarmony.com – for years a service provided only to those seeking opposite sex partners—to now begin offering their service to same-sex love seekers. Peter LaBarbera is president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and says Christians need to respond. “Tell them that this is a terrible decision, and we hope this is going to hurt their bottom line,” he notes. “Again, this is a time of testing f…
Read More…ers in practice never are.” Seidel cited a 2010 study finding a quarter of service members are nonreligious. “So, you’re talking about an audience full of nonreligious service members whose commanding officer is imposing religion on them in a way they can’t escape. That’s coercion,” he said. “It shouldn’t be happening.” MRFF plans a formal appeal “to the highest levels of the Department of Defense,” Weinstein said. “If we fail to receive timely an…
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…as “Operation Iraqi Freedom” (now concluded—hah!) and “Operation Enduring Freedom” (in which US service members continue to be killed and maimed in Afghanistan for no clear or compelling purpose). In 2003 Brooks found the anti-war slogan “No Blood for Oil!” not at all to his taste: to him that chant was simplistic, jejune, etc. Yet in the bigger picture, how can anyone now fail to see how these interminable wars are in fact very much about oil—an…
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…ffort to get a big chunk of the San Gabriel Mountains protected under Park Service rather than Forest Service jurisdiction. A mix of fairly traditional Christians and a somewhat larger number of nature people (let’s just call them “pagans”—a perfectly good word) gathered high up in a canyon grove next to a roaring wild river, whereupon I shouted out a short sermon about how Christians really need to relax about contaminating the Easter rite with n…
Read More…t is almost as if what it means to be a woman, a mother, etc., is to be in service of the needs of others. This service to or care for others is a good thing. So good in fact, everyone should be rushing to do it, not just women. Likewise, caring for oneself has to be put in perspective to the whole. We do a disservice to our Lord and to humankind when we leave ourselves out of the formula of care. I spent a lot of time in the past five years readi…
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…rs and clergy bow to each other and ask forgiveness. It’s a highly kinetic service. Bows. Prostrations. Kisses. Weeping. It’s a service meant to bring out humility and social solidarity. The fact that Kirill used this Sunday to politicize the death of innocent Ukrainians is theologically corrupt. The sermon, which has yet to be officially translated into English, opens in a similar fashion to many of Kirill’s public speeches. He congratulates the…
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…hat Phillips could not refuse to serve interracial couples (but could deny service to interreligious and same-sex couples) is one way for them to do so. As we have already seen, their proposition makes little sense in terms of strict scrutiny, and in fact the Colorado law at issue in Masterpiece Cakeshop likewise does not differentiate among the kinds of discrimination from which it seeks to protect citizens. Waggoner’s and Francisco’s claims only…
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…ft, not only for ourselves but for all nations and peoples who yearn to be free. Catholics in America have discharged this duty of guarding freedom admirably for many generations. Even as the Catholic hierarchy bewails the lack of respect for “religious freedom,” they demanded that Spence resign for daring to publicly oppose anti-LGBT legislation that the bishops back under the “religious freedom” rubric. In March, Spence tweeted “LGBT protections…
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…nd groups have not been allowed exemptions. Thoroughgoing pacifists may be freed from military service, but those who disagree with a particular war (say, on the basis of Christian “just war” theory) are not. The IRS suspended evangelical Bob Jones University’s tax exemption when the institution refused to change its policies forbidding interracial dating. And while small doses of alcohol are permitted in communion, users of the hallucinogenic sub…
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…empty,” in the midst of ecclesiastical opulence, in places where mere lip service is paid to the cause of the lowly. It is painful to hear these words, especially in such settings, because where is the evidence that God has already done these things? Try telling that to the single mother with hungry kids and not enough money to pay for heat. Try telling it to the injured warehouse or delivery worker (or nurse, or culinary worker) who has to pop p…
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