Religion Dispatches
…our place, in a cherished tradition, just for having and voicing questions, doubts, and differences. We told ourselves to not to be afraid. And even when we were afraid, many of us, we just kept on writing. Even though we knew we were being monitored. And knowing made it no less shameful to see the facts in print. Nor does it diminish the pain of seeing a religion characterized by beautiful audacity in its doctrines and daring in its difference s…
Read More…. The website for his current group presents a confusing mix of Zoroastrian, Gnostic, and Hindu ideas riddled with typos, spelling errors, and references to “Karl Jung.” Past attempts to organize events have been stymied by a falling out with his fellow Satanists. Daniels is also a registered sex offender, having had an inappropriate relationship with a female prisoner while working as a guard at an Oklahoma prison. When asked if there had been a…
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…yer functioned as an instrument of hope in an uncertain time. Of his mother, he writes, “I prayed she’d know I was OK. I prayed I could communicate through some cosmic reach of the universe to her. I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed.” What’s evident is that Foley prays primarily for the benefit of others rather than for himself, a much overlooked aspect of both personal and corporate prayer. When he…
Read More…sue. Lucien Greaves, the Temple’s organizer, sent me over a hundred letters, petitions, and audio files of voice mail messages addressed to the Oklahoma Capital Preservation Commission—an amazing archive for a historian of American religion.* One Oklahoma paralegal felt it would demonstrate the state’s religious diversity, while another accused the legislature of hypocrisy and threatened to take a sledgehammer to the Ten Commandments monument. Aot…
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…lf-proclaimed Satanist Mark Dobson will resume in Barrie, Ontario. On May 2, 2012, Dobson was discovered in a hotel room where he had drugged and killed two female acquaintances—his girlfriend and an older woman he called “mom.” He had also attempted to take his own life and allegedly told the shocked hotel staff, “I did it, it was a satanic cult thing.” Dobson’s attorney has found three psychiatrists to testify that Dobson was not criminally resp…
Read More…fascination with Vodou is also closely intertwined with issues of class and, especially, race. This matrix of associations is evident in the example of phone psychics like “Miss Cleo,” who uses an affected Caribbean accent. We also saw it in Pat Robertson’s gaffe following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, when he claimed that the nation of Haiti had made a pact with the Devil. Glassman conforms to no stereotypes about Vodou. Born in M…
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…hey were wrong on birth control, but the rest of the structure is fine. God, Jesus, everything else is fine.” But you’ve been shaken at the foundations and you’re more open to finding more problems in the system. So it was a progressive thing that moved me toward atheism. I finally decided with this book to spell it out in detail. Do you see this as a political position? I never really identified political belief with real theological commitments….
Read More…to put a faithy veneer on AFP’s anti-union, anti-worker, anti-government crusade, has long advocated for the religious right to broaden its agenda to economic issues, a strategy that serves his own business interests. A recent profile in the Christian Post noted how the Faith and Freedom Coalition is housed right next door to Reed’s (and Phillips’) Century Strategies, and it has “the look and feel of a campaign headquarters.” “That’s what this is,…
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…der from the Supreme Court. From UT San Diego: Victor Fernando Urias Amparo, 37, and Victor Manuel Aguirre Espinoza, 43, took their vows amid a crush of media and supporters outside Mexicali City Hall. “Yes we could, yes we could,” the crowd cheered in Spanish. The impromptu wedding ceremony came as a surprise to the pair, who had come to City Hall on Saturday morning to participate in a gay rights demonstration, said their attorney, Jose Luis Mar…
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…tered a ripple in coverage of the campaign. Until the bitter end, of course, when, less than two weeks before election day, we learn that President Obama might be—wait for it—evangelical. Dutifully chronicled by CNN’s Belief Blog editor, Dan Gilgoff, the story is three parts recycled Obama-prays-with-Kirbyjon Caldwell-and-T.D.-Jakes reports, and one part vague meandering about how “translating the Good Book into progressive politics has always bee…
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