Religion Dispatches
…anything else. Third, the Catholic Church hierarchy, as evidenced by this latest editorial, continues to deny the distinction between religious rites and public rights. No one is telling the Church what to do within its magisterium (misleading rhetoric about “religious freedom” notwithstanding). I would appreciate it if it would stop telling New York what to do with ours. We’re not changing religious definitions; we’re expanding secular domains o…
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…campaign, our evangelicals—including among them many of “my” Baptists—were promoting a slew of “social issues,” but precious little “gospel.” Self-proclaimed and media-designated evangelicals had done everything they could to defeat President Obama, and in the process they discredited the evangelical message and reduced it to a mere political gospel. From where I’m sitting, it’s obvious that they need to engage in the kind of soul-searching th…
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…int. But even amid the sex and drugs, this film makes perfect sense as the latest installment of an acting career birthed in Pentecostal spirit. Ever since a woman with the “gift of prophecy” signaled a young Denzel out for future preaching prowess, he has been serious about his spiritual contribution to Hollywood film. In 2007 he explained: When I was about 20 years old, when I first started acting, I was sitting in my mother’s beauty shop. And a…
Read More…t Spitzer, who recently disavowed his own research. Chambers is simply the latest “ex-gay” to realize he isn’t. Exodus’ founder Michael Bussee discovered that back in 1979, when he and Gary Cooper—another ex-gay pioneer—fell in love and got married. “By calling ourselves ‘ex-gay’ we were lying to ourselves and others. We were hurting people,” Bussee recalls. Now that “pray away the gay” is quickly headed for the historical dustbin, Gagnon and his…
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…e who takes on religious practice but was not raised Orthodox. Matisyahu’s latest decision reinforces the nasty stereotypes that “frum from birth” people have long held about newly religious ones. Second, Matisyahu’s brand of Hasidism was Chabad, which, as the joke goes, is the religion closest to Judaism. Chabad’s messianism, its proselytization (to Jews only), its open mysticism, and its tendency to fear modernity less than other Hasidic groups…
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…nian activism using “biblically- and theologically-based principles.” This latest statement’s American context is important. Most authors are from major Protestant denominations such as the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and United Methodist churches. These Christian traditions have, in a remarkable break with centuries of hateful teachings, opposed both Christian hostility toward Judaism and polemics about Jews’ unfaithfulness to God. They also endorse…
Read More…OM’s evidence to be lacking. Not a single state has backed up NOM.” In the latest ruling in California, the judge noted that the complaints of “harassment” were often protected forms of free speech including “picketing, protesting, boycotting, distributing flyers, destroying yard signs, and voicing dissent.” It’s easy to laugh at NOM for believing that being picketed or glared at is actually harassment when gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender…
Read More…veyors of smack and sensationalism, like Bill Maher and the authors of the latest Romney tell-all biography. Polygamy reference? Check. Gratuitous exposure of Mormon ceremonial clothing? Check. Implications of sinistererness? Check. Not in recent memory has the nation’s paper of record published well-conceived, well-executed commentaries on the faith of the presumptive GOP nominee by people who actually understand Mormonism and its fascinating…
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…ions linked this emergent scriptural framework to a movement politics that promoted nonviolent direct-action tactics in service of integrationist aims. This approach proved remarkably successful aiding in the development of a unifying movement culture as well as forging important coalitional ties. Acknowledging this important but often obscured labor is essential not only to an accurate understanding of past struggles but to the success of futures…
Read MoreIn his latest opinion piece for Baptist Press, Mike Goeke, an “ex-gay ministry” leader at Stonegate Fellowship Church in Midland, Texas, scolds churches for trying their best not to make homosexuality a “worse” sin than any other: The truth is that homosexuality IS different. It is not different as a “sin.” God sees the sin of homosexual expression as He sees all sin. It is different, however, in that no other sin (or, better said, an identity ba…
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