Religion Dispatches
…guments and strategies that have failed in the court of public opinion and today in the Supreme Court. Many are already arguing about the great damage that will be done to marriage with today’s decisions. I would suggest that a more important damage to Christian witness in American culture has already been done, not by the Supreme Court but by the Christian activists; and not just today but for a generation or more. And that damage will intensify…
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…bsolute devotion to the sex, violence, and drugs of the film. Christianity Today’s review makes one wonder why they even reviewed it in the first place, as it seems to indicate the film has nothing to do either with “Christianity,” or “today” for that matter. More specifically, it’s curious how few religiously-oriented reviewing outlets were able to see possible symbolic references to, say, Abraham and Isaac, Jesus, or others. So, I’m left wonderi…
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…le, when, in discussing evangelical pushback against outgoing Christianity Today editor Mark Galli’s December 2019 op-ed, “Trump Should Be Removed from Office,” Geddis remarks, “That letter rebuking the Christianity Today editorial was signed not only by leaders of typical evangelical organisations, but also by political figures such as former Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and a number of prosperity-gospel televangelists.” Meanwhile, G…
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…xceptionalism that we have promoted for millennia from the Hebrew Bible to today? It is, in a way, the dark side of chosenness. If we say, “God, who is the creator of the universe, chooses the Jews above all others,” and promote that view by pointing to holy scripture, is it surprising that some of those others will hold negative opinions of us? This is what Spinoza argued. If you think this sounds provocative, it’s actually sewn into our very tra…
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…ow, for example, that exposure to ultraviolet radiation triggers mutations today, then we can also assume it would have had a similar influence on creatures living hundreds of millions of years ago. Meyer observes that, today, when we see something intricate and functional—such as a computer or a can opener—we assume that it’s been designed by some intelligence. Consequently, extrapolating from present observations into the past, the design of an…
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…m minorities in India after the British left (and the Caliphate Movement): today Pakistan has been scarred by vicious sectarian violence, but the mostly Sunni country was founded by an Ismaili Shia leader. Two, in fact. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s ‘Great Leader’ and kind of its George Washington, was born into a minority sect within what was already a Shia minority. The Pakistan Movement also received significant funding from the head of the I…
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…be the shunning and persecution of dissenters within civil society. After today, all religious conservatives are Brendan Eich, the former CEO of Mozilla who was chased out of that company for supporting California’s Proposition 8. Dreher renews an earlier call for what he calls the Benedict Option: One can certainly understand the joy that LGBT Americans and their supporters feel today. But orthodox Christians must understand that things are goin…
Read MoreThis is the first of November. Before this month is over, I will make a major status change. In many cultures around the world Muslims identify the ones who have performed the hajj with a title, used before the name, just like we use Mr. or Ms. in English—Hajjah Naimah or Hajji Umar, for example. It can also be used alone, the way we say sir or ma’am. Occasionally it is used for an older person to show respect even if the person has not actually…
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…violence, figures like Romero give us hope. As Romero prophetically stated, “I should tell you that, as a Christian, I don’t believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.” The Salvadoran people today, the Catholic Church as a whole, and all who stand as defenders of human rights and denounce injustice should take after Obama and spend a moment remembering this modern-day martyr who did not…
Read More…or and just gods that make up American civil religion—in American politics today? Bentley himself, despite his worldview, seemed to wonder. Standing behind a pulpit, he seemed to slip for a moment from politician to pastor; he, almost awkwardly, seemed to understand that there is in America today a difference but at the same time to believe that it was his responsibility to at that moment be both. His response to criticism sought to reassure with…
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