Religion Dispatches
…it is wrong to do so. Someone who is aiming for the highest office in the United States, as Santorum is, should be held to a high moral standard, as the strong historical and current socioeconomic ties between The Netherlands and the United States should be held in high standing. All this leads me to the following conclusion: a man who uses such blatant false claims in order to promote his own agenda is either very devious or shockingly ignorant….
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…nearly two-thirds of which are pentecostal. These numbers bear out in the United States, where around 25% of Hispanics identify as Protestant. “Among Hispanic Protestants overall,” Pew writes, “two-thirds either say they belong to a traditional Pentecostal denomination (29%) or describe themselves as charismatic or Pentecostal Christians (38%).” Pinning down precise numbers for LLDM is almost impossible. The church claims to have more than three…
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…of Catholic Bishops, currently treat one in seven hospital patients in the United States, and their share of control over hospital systems in the United States only continues to grow. In terms of practical matters, being transgender means there are restrictions on where I can live and what health insurance companies I’m able to use in order to ensure that my care takes place within a secular system of clinics and hospitals, where I don’t risk bein…
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…istianity—that fairly describes the majority of religious believers in the United States, for all of their extraordinary diversity. That said, regarding diversity among Christians in the U.S., we have no central ecclesiastical authority to define who and what is and is not Christian. Lacking common definitions can affect our responses to the likes of Clayton Waagner, Scott Roeder, and the Hutaree. For example, liberal Washington Post columnist Eug…
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…forms, new forms of expression in modern politics. The Constitution of the United States is underwritten by an appeal to the divine. So the Constitution of these United States is one that presupposes theological address. It’s not that modern forms of politics cease to be theological, but there is a kind of transformation of these concepts. We’re not free of the theological trappings that we think are confined to the past—when the king was the repr…
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…ment were the major bodies promoting a tradition of moderate reform in the United States (he readily acknowledges minority groups and exceptional individuals outside this tradition who sought to incorporate women, blacks, Jews, etc. into the consensus). Thus, despite Darwinism, the rise of the social sciences, and an advancing secular culture, something like a coalition once existed between the major Protestant denominations—Methodist, Presbyteria…
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…g the truth, junking the impossible notion that God has somehow chosen the United States for a special destiny or is interested in mending our “every flaw.” Try this: 1. Our country’s history has been a mixed bag from the start, with white male supremacy and white racist violence lying at the very core of the Anglo colonial culture—and with that toxic inheritance carrying right through into the revolutionary period and into the young republic and…
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…This libertarian approach to homeschool oversight, which is unique to the United States, has allowed abuse and neglect to thrive. At least 172 homeschooled children have been killed by their parents since 1986, indicating homeschooled children face a greater risk of dying from child abuse than other children. Additionally, a recent survey of 3,702 homeschool alumni found over half (51%) experienced abuse during childhood. A further 26% reported k…
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…r claim to be a land of the free, and a beacon of hope for the world,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says on its website. By reclaiming liberty, members of the religious right are reclaiming a world in which Christianity provided the moral structure for the founding of the nation. The United States’ regime of religious freedom is divided into two categories—those freedoms protected by the Establishment Clause and those protected…
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…ophetic community. And a populist movement is going to be raised up in the United States that is going to become the Great Awakening.” “It’s the spirit of God that has been on you your whole life,” he declares, “preparing you for this moment in history.” Walnau is just one of many who foresee violence. Last year, Prophet Amanda Grace, for example, blew a shofar to open a ReAwaken event, explaining, “When the shofar was blown, the walls of Jericho…
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