Religion Dispatches
…cost of true discipleship. The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap…We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition…Was there ever a more terrible and disastrous instance of Christianizing the world than this? It’s regrettable, I think, that “cheap grace” has turned into a kind of meme that Rod Dreher can toss into his debate with Andrew Sullivan without…
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…church, they’re marinating, so to speak, in the the various teachings of a number of people. I’ve covered many an event where I’ve been waiting in line to get in, and the inevitable conversation with the people around you goes something like this: they ask first where you go to church, and second which teachers you admire, and then you get into a long conversation about the relative virtues of all of them. A really good example of how all these te…
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…a random sample size and therefore isn’t statistically representative. The number of individuals reporting victimization in Episcopal spaces is alarming nonetheless. However, I would argue the data is more likely to under- than to overestimate the scope of the abuse that occurs. To see why, the survey results must be interpreted in light of the Episcopal Church’s larger culture of inaction around sexual violence. See no evil, hear no evil… LGBTQ+…
Read More…ck Scott announced his proposed budget in front of tea partiers in central Florida, instead of in Tallahassee where the budget has been announced in the past. Clearly designed as pageantry to flatter the tea partiers, the Governor boasted some $5.2 billion in cuts (only to later have to admit that the number was inflated and that the cuts were “only” $3.5 billion). The announcement of our state budget, by the way, was held in the Eustis First Bapt…
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…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…
Read More…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…
Read More…usly by voters while you run for President, back up your claims with facts. Can you match 43 Nobel Laureates, or do you fold? Kopplin is testifying before Louisiana lawmakers today urging them to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act….
Read More…er from this crisis and prevent future damage continues.” In a post on the Louisiana Coalition for Science blog, Barbara Forrest points out that the signing of the proclamation came two years to the day that Jindal signed the Louisiana Science Education Act, which inserts anti-science, creationism-friendly language into the state’s public school education standards. Forrest writes: The fact that people would turn to prayer is not surprising. Devou…
Read More…ovenant marriage laws have primarily been advanced by the Christian Right; Louisiana’s bill, for one, was authored by then-State Representative Tony Perkins, now president of the Christian Right organization Family Research Council. And while some have argued that covenant marriage laws violate the First Amendment by harnessing the power of the state to enforce religious doctrine—an attorney with the ACLU of Louisiana, for example, noted that cove…
Read More…who believe in intelligent design. On Friday, Kopplin testified before the Louisiana Senate, urging them to support SB 70, which would have repealed LSEA. But the bill died in committee and LSEA still stands. Here he is testifying here. In his testimony, he explains the difference to lawmakers between a scientific theory and the popular use of the word theory as an unproven conjecture. I love the example he uses to make his point, which proves, at…
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