Religion Dispatches
…re so important as we go forward. And the idea that we should not have our freedom of — of religion to be taken away by any means, but we also are a country that is free to express our opinions. That individual expressed an opinion. I didn’t agree with it, Mitt, and I said so. But the fact is, Americans understand faith. And what they’ve lost faith in is the current resident of the White House. 4 Romney: That — that idea that we should choose peop…
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…might, right and white privilege. Reagan truly believed that his notion of freedom—democracy, free markets and religious liberty—was God’s plan for America. He also believed that America was God’s tool for spreading freedom worldwide. In the years following his presidency, his vision was enacted through domestic and foreign policy. Welfare reform, trade agreements, and the War on Terror may have seemed to further neoliberal or neoconservative aims…
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…ess by supporting organizations that “bear the common mission of advancing free enterprise and free societies.” The Saemans write that “promoting limited government alongside the Kochs is an important part of heeding Pope Francis’s call to love and serve the poor.” This despite Francis’ unequivocal statements almost exactly a year ago in opposition to the “free enterprise” ideology: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assum…
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…of an adolescent boy, Tom Sawyer, who knows that Jim has already been set free by his owner. That Twain’s riotous vernacular—its mixture of sly comedy and broad parody, its thick nostalgia for a fading river culture—somehow makes it possible to read this cruel narrative with pleasure constitutes an artistic achievement of the highest order, but a deeply perverse one. What other word better describes a story in which an escaping slave is drawn by…
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…rings us, finally, to the fundamental and intractable problem of religious freedom in a modern, contentious, pluralistic society. I expect many of us have some sense that St. Vincent school should be free to level religious conditions for employment even though we may disagree with the teachings on which those requirements are based. Oh, sure, the rules should be enforced in ways that are fair and above board. The rules should not simply provide a…
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…g that keeps Americans from their hard-won incomes and dreams of financial freedom in a free market is a disgrace, if not downright devilry. Tea Partiers and party-challenged Republicans are basking in the glory of their victories, secure in the knowledge that a message pitting the “little man” against the “big government” resonated deeply and widely for many Americans in the first decade of the 21st century who hate government, love the military,…
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…sonally, I appreciate and enjoy the radically liberal American approach to free speech, including the right to blaspheme—which is of course not to say that to do so is always wise or tasteful. But, as retired history professor Anthony Edmonds of Ball State University used to quip in the classroom, a historian’s favorite hand is “the other hand.” For better or for worse, I am professionally trained as a historian. Thus, despite my respect for Ameri…
Read More…all Street hucksters? But here’s the kicker: The fact that Jesus chose the free market system as the basis for this parable should not be overlooked. When the nobleman returns, after being established as king – a stand-in for Jesus – he calls all his servants together to see what they had accomplished in his absence. Ah. The kingdom Jesus is expecting upon his return is a free market system? Novel. Perkins goes on to argue that Jesus “rejected col…
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…tual world, but as someone who teaches about race, and slavery, you can be free even if others don’t think you are, or are worthy of being free. The bigger question that goes alongside of this is: can you become divine if you’re not real? Hmmn. That brings up all sorts of issues, especially if, as it seems presently, the writers are making this new religion suspiciously like Catholicism. I hope that the writers won’t go in the easy direction of co…
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…, but there was certainly a great amount of freedom—and not just religious freedom. There was freedom to sell anything you want, to buy anything you want, to be anything you want, to believe anything you want, and to create any kind of religion you want. You may be persecuted for that, as the Mormons were, but if you’re willing to take on that risk, go nuts! So, yes—because we could, we did. That’s part of it. But I’m skeptical that this fully exp…
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