Religion Dispatches
…a report [pdf] prepared by the church-state separation advocacy group the Texas Freedom Network in 2006, Perry “clearly wants the thousands of pastors associated with the Texas Restoration Project to help him communicate with evangelical Christians and other conservatives . . . . Even his speeches at pastors’ briefings now sound much like sermons.” The report quotes Perry: “This I know,” the governor-cum-evangelist preached to approving pastors a…
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…gence apps” including As One America, which contains the name, address and phone number of Christian neighbors “who are not showing up to vote or who are not registered.” He then showed a map with big red arrows pointing to precincts “within striking distance” from Vida Church to the precincts that are “where the devil’s got a stronghold that God wants to break up.” The app was developed by Superfeed Technologies, which has also designed apps for…
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…me shows), even when something unintentional happens—say you know that the airline didn’t intentionally keep you from flying—the question that humans often pose is, “Was this preventable?” “Could they have done something to prevent that?” And that’s when we wonder—well, who could have done something to prevent it? The person at the counter? The pilot? The CEO? We don’t know, and so we have, in a sense, a certain disorientation and don’t know to wh…
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…e his new responsibilities—and move his household from Phoenix, Arizona to Cleveland, Ohio where the UCC is headquartered. He says he is going to call the UCC to seek to rigorously adapt to the 21st century by considering new ways of “being church.” His vision is a bold one, but on the phone he quietly shrugs it off, saying it’s just a continuation of the Congregational tradition of more than 400 years. ________________ Frederick Clarkson: In Beyo…
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…oommate over a period of months in 1970. Although I can’t find an official number, a casino employee tells us over 5,000 tickets have been sold; 5,000 pilgrims who’ve made the trek from around the country to pay their respects to Annabelle, and are willing to wait hours to do so. On the convention floor, an eclectic group of vendors hocks their wares, from Ouija boards and books about ghost hunting to bath bombs shaped like horror movie icons. The…
Read More…tened to boycott IKEA, after it provided Family Card holders with discount tickets to his Christian magic show, ‘Vision’. In a statement, the chain said it would not be cutting ties with the pastor. IKEA said: “Dear IKEA fans, thanks for your patience while we took time to come to an informed decision on an issue that has raised sensitivities in our community. “After listening to the questions raised, we decided to do a thorough review. We spoke d…
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…ot precisely modeled on the Christian nation mythologists who want to turn Texas classrooms into training grounds for “biblical law” enthusiasts. The United States has a Constitution; nothing in it declares America is a Christian nation (or, in the Texas SBOE parlance a “Judeo-Christian nation”). Barton’s claims that the Constitution in fact codifies a “Christian nation” doesn’t make it so. In contrast, though, Israel does not yet have a constitut…
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…y from Victorian sentimentalism. Such angels are on sale at reduced price; cheap wares for cheap faith. It would be an error, however, to fully dismiss pop culture angels. Despite the fact that representations of angels in film and television, comics and music, paperback novels and posters, are filtered through market concerns, such pop culture can still speak to human meaning—and because of that they merit our attention. Besides, the bulk of art…
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…olution as a controversial subject. Coincidentally, 160 miles north of the Austin conference room where the board will be debating how evolutionary theory should be taught in its public schools, creationists announced this summer that they have discovered proof of man and dinosaur co-existence. Just outside of Glen Rose, Texas, in a place known as the Paluxy Flats, creationists say they have identified the three-toed footprint of an Acrocanthosaur…
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…ties of slavery and its aftermath.”He had previously worked to desegregate Texas churches in the 1950s, helped organize the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and went on a hunger strike in 1995 to protest the Methodist church’s treatment of LGBT people. He nevertheless described himself as a paralyzed soul, unable to effect change. He was 79. Fred Phelps, Sr. Leader of a small but infamous church dedicated to declaring God’s judgement,…
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