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Francis the Jesuit: a Philosopher-Pope?

…ady lived. Yes, this is literary drama. Yet what we have in the Spiritual Exercises is a textual practice minus the page: it is the individual life that forms the plot in question, to be read and edited; places that require improvement are to be marked; and the text re-read, a small dot made here, a nota bene there—and this process to be repeated again and again. The Exercises demand that the Jesuit remain attentive to the way in which the compone

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Lessons from the Defeat of the Oklahoma Personhood Bill

…there was a fight, but SB-1433 was never heard, and now the deadline has expired. In the aftermath, it seems to me that two factors contributed to the bill’s defeat: 1) Deep disagreement, between the personhood movement and more mainstream pro-life Oklahoma voters and legislators, on the advisability of amendments to the bill; and 2) The development of ill will between the personhood lobby and the Republican representatives. To recap: In the past…

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One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Religion and the Obama Campaign

…the second presidential campaign of the 21st century. Here, I think, is a better way to pose the question of the right relation between religion and politics as it relates to Obama’s long-suffering presidential candidacy. I propose the following as a sort of genealogy of the current confusion. 1) The two main political parties in the United States today are fairly loose coalitions, and since Reagan’s presidential victory in1980, the coalition tha…

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Religious Traditionalists Resist Marriage Equality, Artist Questions What Is “Un-African” & More in This Global LGBT Recap

…sive” film “The Wound.” The film by director John Trengove is a love story between two Xhosa men set against “ulwaluko,” the Xhosa coming-of-age circumcision ritual. The film’s star, Nakhane Toure, has reportedly been receiving “homophobic abuse” amid boycott calls. From CNN: The furore threatens to cloud a gripping study of inter-generational attitudes towards homosexuality, illuminating a corner of the LGBT community, stifled, if not silenced, b…

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‘I Don’t Buy It’: The Gospel According to Frank Underwood

…r, but perhaps he may have a twinge of phantom pain where his moral appendix used to be. Alone on the altar, Frank approaches the crucifix suspended above him. He looks up, into the eyes of Jesus, and says, “Love. That’s what you’re selling? Well, I don’t buy it.” And then he spits at Jesus’ face. The act was shocking and yes, sacrilegious. I don’t believe we ever would have seen such a display on network television where advertisers rule and prot…

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Call it ‘Christian Globalism’: A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation, Part III

…ision of the NAR is based on their understanding of the Great Commission text of Matthew 28:18-20, with an emphasis on “discipling nations” (28:19). International apostolic networks are therefore necessary for the apostles to lead the five-fold ministry (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher) which was restored by God for the building-up of the Church (see Ephesians 4:11-13). That’s why they seek “alignment” among one another. It’s also…

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Argue-by-Number: A Suggestion for the Church

…ult on God’s holy people. Numbering all the familiar arguments about homosexuality would extend and perfect this habit of citing scriptural verses without worrying much about what they mean. It would also help us to avoid an awkward question—all the more awkward for being so obvious: Why do we repeat these arguments so energetically, so incessantly? In the joke about the prisoners, the repetition is easy to explain. They are locked up, they have n…

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Rage Against the New Age Machine: Three Days at the Osho International Meditation Resort

…to a larger property and denied visas to foreign acolytes. The center’s tax exempt status was rescinded, and religious leaders railed against Rajneesh’s heterodox teachings. Faced with open hostility, the guru and his closest associates decamped from Pune to a 64,000-acre spread in Oregon. Dubbed Rancho Rajneesh, the commune was envisioned as the hub of a self contained city. When locals resisted the planned expansion, the Rajneeshiis (as discipl…

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Is Army’s New “Humanist” Designation Just Semantic Hooey?

…ajectory of his lineage.  Indeed, in many religions, choosing a name that expresses a close coherence between self-identity and religious identity and affiliation (or having one conferred) is a defining ritual feature, as in the Sikh Nam Karam ceremony for naming a child according to the first letter of a sacred hymn. Such a name is, as Roland Barthes put it, “the prince of signifiers; its connotations are rich, social and symbolic.” While not per…

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Rome vs. the Sisters

…together for the sake of greater effectiveness. Already in 1929 Pope Pius XI had stressed the need for better prepared Catholic school teachers; in 1950, Pius XII called a meeting of the heads of all religious orders for the purpose of further advancing their collaboration; and in 1952 he called a meeting of women’s superiors, during which he urged the sisters to update and educate themselves for the purpose of attaining attain equal footing with…

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