Religion Dispatches
…d effective way. Interactivity was still relatively limited, and our media mimicked our religion: much of it was still top-down, though change hung in the air. But it’s Benedict who has seen unprecedented change in communications technology—enough to make anyone wish for retirement. He’s observed the massive development of YouTube and Google, the ubiquity of smart phones and mobile devices, and the rise of Facebook and Twitter, which boast nearly…
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…e fundamentally different; they need only be suggested or imagined in virtual reality for the consequences to appear in real time. Jewish tradition has it that Rabbi Haninah Ben Teradion was burned at the stake with the Torah scroll underneath him for defying the Roman decree against teaching the Torah. As the scroll was burning, he said, “I see the scrolls burning but the letters fly up in the air.” Most interpreters over the centuries, both reli…
Read More…go is now taking shape, “coalescing in support of immigrant rights, universal healthcare, LBGTQ rights and racial justice.” Although the “religious left” has more of an interfaith emphasis, the majority of this relatively loose coalition of religious institutions and organizations remain Christian. That’s not surprising, given that some 70% of Americans continue to identify as Christian, in one shape or another. Nevertheless, it also explains why…
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…om Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway: People who oppose praying to Almighty God instead pray to the god of government, which they believe can solve the question of man’s evil. This is so many ways wrong I hardly know where to begin. I guess let’s start with it being a particularly nasty response to Max Boot, who is Jewish, and continue with it being a complete strawman argument, as though atheists or secular people really believe any such…
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…nerable populations. Even as the crisis in our nursing homes continues, criminal justice advocates have been urgently calling attention to the crisis in our jails and prisons. It’s no secret that America incarcerates the largest share of its population than any country in the world. The rampant racial disparities in the criminal justice system and the use of incarceration to address poverty and other social problems is well documented. And our use…
Read More…rsonal gain of the pastor. Parsley, for example, has his own jet, which he flew to Las Vegas one Sunday in 2007, apparently for a personal trip. From God’s Profits: Parsley boasts that over the years he has had four different planes that have shuttled him more than a million miles around the world, allegedly to preach the gospel. The current plane is dubbed Shamgar VII, which Parsley translates as “God on the move.” (In the Bible, Shamgar was a ju…
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…f Mexico’s Maya and other indigenous peoples during his four decade episcopal ministry. An erstwhile seminary rector, Bishop Ruiz was “converted” by the poor of his diocese, much as Oscar Romero had been. There are more than two million Maya indigenous in the Diocese of San Cristobal, which encompasses both the sprawling mountain highlands and the vast Lacandon Jungle in one of Mexico’s poorest states. Ruiz responded to the extreme poverty and mar…
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…rvatorships grant to conservators entrenching the authoritarian, hierarchical family model often seen within evangelical faith communities. Independently, these systems both grant unchecked power over vulnerable populations, but together they have both legal and social sanction. To get a more nuanced and personal perspective on the role religion has played in Spears’s life and conservatorship, I spoke with Bethany Grace, who, like me, was raised i…
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…tically adjacent—structures, such as the Family Research Council. Pentecostals might get involved with such groups too, but they’re also out there doing their own thing. They take the view that we’re in God’s advancing kingdom—go out there and do whatever you can. Prayer walk through the red-light district to cast out the demons; stop that woman in her wheelchair and command her to be healed in Jesus’ name. There’s also a spirit of innovation at p…
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…e rifles. The rifle is so popular among firearm enthusiasts that the National Rifle Association nicknamed it America’s Rifle. Tattoo of Jesus and AR-15. Image: David Watts AR-15s are also increasingly the firearm of choice for Christian gun owners who arm themselves—in their minds, at least—in defense against both tyranny and evil. Their admiration for the AR-15 is the result of the convergence of several parallel and related movements, the first…
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