Religion Dispatches
…mber of Mars Hill Church (Home of the macho hipster pastor Mark Driscoll). CNN recently announced that Benthke’s video had been viewed 15 million times in just over a week. Benthke tells us that “Jesus hated religion.” But what does he mean by “religion?” Religion, he claims, is responsible for wars and yet distinct from the church or the teaching of Jesus. While fans embrace this sentiment of “Jesus, not religion” as a radical Christian message,…
Read More…st watch list were apprehended trying to cross the southern border (actual number: 6). These are the same networks that have reported for many months that the rate of unauthorized border crossings is way down, that experts who actually understand smart border security believe physical barriers don’t work, and that even conservative members of Congress whose districts lie along the border (e.g., Will Hurd of Texas) think Trump’s proposed barrier ma…
Read More…r for Opus Dei, McCloskey has taken his mission onto Meet the Press and to CNN. He’s preached it in USA Today and inThe New York Times. More famously, he has brought into Catholicism several members of the conservative elite. McCloskey personally baptized Judge Robert Bork, political pundits Robert Novak and Lawrence Kudlow, publisher Alfred Regnery, financier Lewis Lehrman, and US Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, whose baptismal sponsor was anoth…
Read More…ng may not win over South Carolina voters, as evidenced by the boos at the CNN debate and dramatic last-minute reversals in the polls. No wonder Romney again let his prickly side come out during the debate. No wonder he’s feeling a bit defensive. His plan-ahead-work-hard-execute-precisely-and-smile strategy—equal parts technocrat and LDS corporate culture—isn’t working in the Palmetto state. South Carolina is no cakewalk for a wonky Yankee Mormon….
Read More…take seriously the idea they are extremists. In addition to killing large numbers of people, trying very hard to commit genocide, burning prisoners alive, and beheading innocent civilians, ISIS also uses rape as a tool of conquest, and slavery as a mechanism of control. All of this behavior is fundamentally in contradiction to core Islamic values and principles. In my longest piece on the topic, I discuss ISIS theology from the perspective of Isl…
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…In order to be on track for reelection, he would have to be improving his numbers with white Christians, and it’s just not happening. Last, Trump is taking a huge hit among older voters, dropping 14 points in favorability with those 65 or older. Unscientifically, this may be what’s causing the fall in his religious numbers. Because older voters tend to be more religious than younger ones, a decline in one set will very likely be reflected in the…
Read More…er in a public ceremony.” Taking a look at the full exit polling data, via CNN, 60% of South Carolina voters said the religious beliefs of the candidates a great deal or somewhat, and 45% of them went for Gingrich; 19% for Romney, and 22% for Santorum. Yes, I know, the meeting of religious right “leaders” (who didn’t do much actual leading, or rather there wasn’t much following) produced a consensus for Santorum. But it didn’t matter, and neither…
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…ation and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. CNN reported this month on the ways that Donald Trump’s travel ban and suspension of refugee admittance are harming LGBT refugees from countries with Islamist countries. This week Maria Melo wrote at The Advocate, “Make No Mistake: The New Travel Ban is Targeting LGBT People.” Also writing in The Advocate, OutRight International’s Jessica Stern wrote, “Trump’s MuslimB an Co…
Read More…e held accountable’ for failing to protect children from sexual abuse,” as CNN put it. But can we expect former Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Joseph Adamec and current Bishop Mark L. Bartchak to face consequences for their failures? Will they be swift and severe? Accusations that a priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese had been molesting children at orphanages in Central America on his annual visits went unheeded by the PA diocese for five years. T…
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…en evangelical Christianity and Vodou in Haiti in this Sunday’s episode on CNN 7PT/10ET. After the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, the popular televangelist Pat Robertson went on his flagship TV program, the 700 Club, and made an extraordinary claim. The earthquake, he said, was just one consequence of a pact with the devil made by Haiti’s revolutionary founders. “[The Haitians] were under the heel of the French. You know, Napole…
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