Religion Dispatches
…by those who, in the pride of their kingdom, put the Lord to death.” By consigning Jews to the theological status of servus, or slave, Augustine laid the intellectual groundwork for the political status of Jews a millennium later. In the Middle Ages, European monarchs “insisted that the Jews belonged to them in a peculiar way, different from that of their other subjects” (emphasis Nirenberg’s). Thus the king could use the Jews as tax collectors an…
Read More…at Mormons for Equality will have its own delegation in the parade. Mormons who want to participate have a choice to decide how they will identify. For Mormons Building Bridges, our theme this year is “Family Reunion.” We are asking people to march in family groups and make a sign with their family name. We feel like family reunions are great Mormon events but they are often very fraught for gay people, who might ask themselves, “Can I come? Can I…
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…ltural opponents,” says Galef at SSA. “It comes down to which values we’re promoting. We are promoting values of critical thinking and acceptance.” Conflicting values on campus have led to unsavory events. Last year at Salisbury University in Maryland, the Atheist Society took offense when Cru students chalked a verse from the Bible: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is not one who doe…
Read More…was supposed to be a spokesperson for the campaign. That, of course, was a sign that the campaign, and Romney in particular, were made queasy by the pressure from anti-gay Republicans. Grenell, to be sure, was not a perfect spokesperson—but not because of his support for marriage equality and LGBT rights. As his tweets demonstrated, he did have what could charitably be called a tact or diplomacy problem. But that’s not why, by all accounts, he res…
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…d for his “phony religiosity.” Obama, though, let that roll right off his back. By contrast, conservatives are starting to portray Giglio as a victim. Which is, of course, another sign that the culture wars are not over. *This post has been corrected to reflect Robinson’s role in the 2009 inaugural festivities….
Read More…say what opinions we should have. In Maryland, I’ve only seen one call for signature gatherers that went out over one congregation’s email list. But even without formal LDS Church involvement in Maryland, you feel compelled to take a more political stance than the Salt Lake City marchers. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail said, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people…
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…g Benjamin, taught the people at the temple (see Jacob 1:17; Mosiah 1:18). Significantly, when the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the Nephites in A.D. 34, He came to the temple (see 3 Nephi 11:1–11). The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “The Church is not fully organized, in its proper order, and cannot be, until the Temple is completed, where places will be provided for the administration of the ordinances of the Priesthood.” The LDS.org w…
Read More…which receives millions in federal funds, and requires all US employees to sign its Christian Statement of Faith and/or The Apostles Creed. World Vision’s president, Richard Stearns, has been an outspoken critic of ending what is euphemistically known as “co-religionist hiring,” and has a coalition of conservative faith-based advocates backing him. After Obama pledged on the campaign trail in 2008 to reverse the Bush policy, evangelicals were up i…
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…with the other. Is it an underlying straight assumption about wealth as a sign of masculine virility? Oh, that’s an excellent idea… I have two theories: One is the great dialectic in American culture between Jesus the meek and humble lamb and Jesus the warrior, the man’s man. In other words, is it the Jesus who appeals to the effeminate preachers and their female flock or the Billy Sunday-Billy Graham [version represented today by] Tony Evans? He…
Read More…act that scientists themselves are using this vocabulary, he argues, “is a sign of the utility that these supernatural concepts still maintain” for describing our universe. The use of supernatural concepts to describe the Higgs boson has been hotly debated ever since CERN’s announcement. Over at io9, Dave Goldberg makes all the best arguments against it. The “God Particle” was coined by Leon Lederman in a book detailing how essential the Higgs is…
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