Religion Dispatches
…find that in the eyes of their friends and associates they have suddenly become better, more estimable doctors and nurses—not because they are more knowledgeable, skilled, or caring but because they are treating, OMG, a celebrity! Shouldn’t we pray for these doctors and nurses lest the Evil One tempt them to engage in all manner of despicable practices out of sheer contempt for patients more impressed by 15 minutes of fame or even 15 weeks on the…
Read More…China under that country’s one-child policy, which it claims has killed a number of people “comparable to the horrendous genocides by Hitler and Pol Pot.” (The eugenics falsehood is also disseminated about Planned Parenthood, and in this country, conservatives of late have been promoting the film Maafa 21, which claims that Planned Parenthood has been engaged in a plot to engage in “black genocide” — when in fact black women in the United States…
Read More…not control the Muslim world. There cannot be a level of centralized control over 1.6 billion people. Nor can all non-Muslims, over 6.5 billion people speak with one voice. Once we use a little commonsense it becomes easier to move away from master narratives and look at problems that have causes that can be addressed, and successes that can be emulated….
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…in Philadelphia: …and Chicago:…
Read More…longer finds them desirable? [hard blink] Fellas? [Edited to add: I am really interested in the truth behind the story of Austin, the chimp who allegedly engaged in sexual behavior with males when all the females in his group had been given hormonal birth control. It looks like it comes from a book called The Decline of Males by Lionel Tiger, but I don’t know more about the study on which the claim is based. Anyone else able to work their Google…
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…its the core of my reasoning for studying religion. If nothing else, I can come up with sociological questions in class and think about how religious commitments affect the lives of my classmates. Because isn’t that the point of Religious Studies? This probably sounds cliché, but I really believe that we can begin to understand people, culture, and current events by appreciating the values and practices that give them meaning. MH: Does everyone yo…
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…tuous about U.S. Christians and their political affiliations. They might become angry that companies have such power in shaping the public’s perception of Christianity and, indeed, in shaping Christians’ own ideas about their communities’ identity and values. Perhaps the ad would act as confirmation bias, or serve to normalize slogans, tones, and political attitudes like “Let’s Go Brandon” among Christians. The whole conversation underscores the c…
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…booster. (Er, as an aside… I would like just to note that Rick Santorum’s Google problem coincides with the my not-wanting-to-use-double-entendre-in-a-story-about-Rick-Santorum-but-finding-it-difficult-to-avoid-doing-so-unintentionally problem. If a bad pun arises, I apologize in advance.) But even we who are not Santorum boosters would be well-advised, I think, to do two things: 1) Leave his wife’s medical history out of it 2) Try not to get pun…
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Religion comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable—or so we’re told. (Actually, the phrase was first coined about a newspaper.) But what happens when it comforts the afflicted precisely by afflicting them more? Say, by cosmologizing and theologizing their problems, rather than solving them? And suppose you could make a buck by doing so? Such are the conundrums both of traditional religions and of what scholars call new religious movemen…
Read More…the heat from the Anti-Defamation League, and has apologized to the Jewish community. Messer’s traveling coronation show, with Long, White, and a host of other troubled or disgraced leaders is a novel way to put compromised pastors back in good graces with their dwindling flocks. I must admit, it is a good grift if these so called “preachers” are trying to get back control over their congregations. For Long and White, who both have lost considerab…
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