Religion Dispatches
…ndment — and I am a strong supporter. I fought the federal government on a number of issues when they were trying to force us to do things [in Louisiana]. But when you look at what’s happening on marriage, the real fear is that states like New York will change the definition of marriage for Texas. At that point the states rights argument is lost. That’s right. Because there’s a storied history of New York making Texas do crazy stuff. Perry grovele…
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…bond between a Syrian handyman and his wife, Kathy, a woman from suburban Louisiana, raised Southern Baptist but now wrapped in the kind of modest headscarf that makes the knees of European governments tremble. Their story, their delightful family, their love for and support for each other from the days leading up to Katrina to the rotten aftermath, are enough reason to want to keep reading. Their attempts to read their faith into their crises ma…
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…re winning the state by a significant margin, Santorum was introduced to a Louisiana audience by Baptist pastor Dennis Terry, who declared America a Christian nation. “There is only one God and his name is Jesus… Listen to me, If you don’t love America, If you don’t like the way we do things I have one thing to say: GET OUT,” Terry told his audience as Santorum applauded. Given all of this, maybe it’s not surprising that John F. Kennedy’s famous s…
Read More…that the death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional. With Kennedy v. Louisiana the highest court in the land has given America a wonderful gift: it has reminded us that life is the highest value there is; the life of humans, of all the species, of nature. Our repulsion and disgust over a father raping his 8-year-old daughter does not trump the value of life, of all life, even that of the rapist; just like our justified anger against Osama bi…
Read More…ts amendment. Given the USCCB’s teaching on the subject, you might then expect all 35 of them to go on to vote for the bill. But only 29 of them did. Six of them — Jason Altmire and Tim Holden of Pennsylvania, John Boccieri of Ohio, Jim Marshall of Georgia, Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, and Gene Taylor of Mississippi, all Catholics, voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment and then against the bill. Is there going to be a lot of hand-wringing about h…
Read More…posed changes to the conceal and carry laws would allow permit holders to have concealed weapons in churches and in some schools. Adelle Banks wrote about this trend in February here. Bobby Jindal signed such a law into effect in Louisiana and the Michigan proposal went to far as to say that, with a concealed weapons permit, one need not have permission of church officials. Jones was in Michigan to promote his “rile up the Muslims by insulting th…
Read More…alysis of the “volume of prayers being offered” is overlaid with data on a number of social problems, to compare the “prayer years with the post prayer years.” The removal of prayer from public schools lowered the amount of prayer being offered to such a degree that its impact was felt, not just in the schools, but in every aspect of our national life! Never mind that just because two things seem to happen at the same time doesn’t make them causal…
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…the country as a way to sneak creationist literature into the curriculum. Louisiana has been at the forefront of the supplemental materials battle since 2008, and lawmakers there have made it possible for school districts to sidestep any legitimate review process in adopting materials. In 2004, the Dover Area School Board tried to introduce the ID textbook Of Pandas and People, published by the creationist Foundation for Thought and Ethics, into…
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…e and medical services? First, that case was decided before Roberts was outnumbered by conservative justices who want change now. Roberts is an incrementalist, but still deeply conservative. He wants to change things slowly to preserve the legitimacy of the court and its ability to move the country in line with his conservative ideology. But now there are five conservatives who don’t care, who, as we’ve just seen, are willing to overturn precedent…
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…lic, form advocacy groups, and begin dating human waitresses. Set in rural Louisiana, the vampires’ struggle against prejudice carries strong echoes of the civil rights movement. Last year’s season drew an average audience of 7.8 million viewers per episode. This was due, at least in part, to one of the most bizarre marketing campaigns in history. HBO hired an agency called CampFire NYC to use a technique known as “viral marketing.” The strategy w…
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