Religion Dispatches
…ogressives trying to persuade people with statistics and a laundry list of policies. But a powerful prophetic religious voice can provide a strong critique of what is wrong and broken in our society, and the passion to inspire people to step up and make sacrifices to work for real change. How do you feel about the cover? I’m happy with the cover, especially the main title, “Progressive & Religious,” in large orange stylized script. We decided…
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…not visit the site. To do so would be a tacit endorsement of the laws and policies that limit civil liberties in Israel in favor of religious control of public prayer, life-cycle events, and, in cases involving conversion, even questions of citizenship. The White House may cite security concerns, but a visit to the Western Wall would be a misstep for a president who claims to support freedom and equality while the Women of the Wall still struggle…
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…do open their doors and start being a little more open-minded about their policies. The idea of baseball as a political tool of American foreign policy is not a new one. In 1913, James Sullivan, dispatch minister for the Dominican Republic, suggested to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that baseball could exorcise political demons in that Latin American nation, while also diffusing anti-U.S. sentiment. The manifestation of resentment tow…
Read More…dvocate specific remedies. They should stop lobbying for detailed economic policies like progressive tax rates, higher minimum wage and, presumably, the expansion of health care – “matters of public policy upon which Gospel principles by themselves do not resolve differences of opinion among reasonable and well-informed people of good will,” as George put it. So, to recap: Legal protections for a same-sex couple and their children? Access to contr…
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…ble, imminent, and part of the divine plan for humanity—and are supporting policies that raise the probability of just such a war. What ought we do about millennial thinking in our day? If the combined 1300 pages of these two books have taught me anything, it’s that we can’t make it just go away. There is something fascinating, and perverse, in the human psyche that seems to yearn for this world to be other than how it is, even if that means destr…
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…Trump wants to drive as many companies and consumers out of ACA-compliant policies as he can, to spike rates and send the ACA into a “death spiral.” He’s willing to screw over even Republican governors to do that. Given that the new order leaves it up to the states to decide whether to grant conscience clause exemptions to the contraceptive mandate, it seems likely that Trump is willing to stick other governors with the cost of implementing his o…
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…Way went to El Salvador. Layer by layer, I began to find out about how US policies had influenced this country’s civil war. Currently, (if you include undocumented workers) approximately one out of every hundred people in the United States come from this tiny country. As a taxpayer, I am more connected to this country than I thought I was. So, I wanted to go down to El Salvador to learn how this all started. What did you discover upon your arriva…
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