Religion Dispatches
…ion and, intriguingly, that he “adds to that diversity,” which is probably code for a less-than-orthodox approach to the faith. Huntsman is helped also by the fact that whereas Mormonism may be the most intriguing thing about candidate Romney, candidate Huntsman plays rock-and-roll and rides motorcycles. 3. He needs to show well in New Hampshire, but it’s South Carolina he is banking on. His campaign team is already heavy with recycled McCain pers…
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…provised, is unpredictable and ephemeral. As Jason Bivins documents in his latest book, Spirits Rejoice!: Jazz and American Religion, jazz musicians share with religion scholars certain anti-essentialist leanings. Spirits Rejoice!: Jazz and American Religion Jason C. Bivins Oxford University Press (May 1, 2015) The similarities run deeper. Jazz musicians often describe their music as “sacred,” “spiritual,” and conducive of self-realization or soci…
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…calyptic totem, and he either conveniently ignores it or makes jokes. This latest speech is only a joke in the sense of a DC comic—The Killing Joke maybe. The former president opened his speech—after a long list of far-right celebrity shout outs—by framing the 2024 election as a battle: “the greatest in our history, most important battle in our lives is taking place right now as we speak. For seven years, you and I have been engaged in an epic str…
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…Catholic Worker, because priests had authored three of the articles in the latest issue—clearly more than she was looking for. This brings us to the election of Archbishop Dolan as president of the USCCB. As previously noted, the archbishop is a cordial and well-spoken man, so I’m sure he was gracious to his defeated opponent, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson. But his election is not a good sign. As the New York Times mentions, this is the first ti…
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…M. Hutchens of the Christian Zionist “Jerusalem Connection,” who has been promoting the piece. Why? Bartholomew: “I can see why Freund would enthuse over this, but it’s less clear why a conservative evangelical like Hutchens would want to promote the idea of 500,000 to 1 million Portuguese and Spaniards embracing a religion other than Christianity. Such are the mysteries of Christian Zionism.” Coral Ridge Ministries Produces Is Jesus God?: Since…
Read More…to convince American Jews that Democrats are harmful to Israel. The RJC’s latest release—”What Exactly Did President Obama Mean By That?”—takes such an aggrieved posture that you’d think the president had referred to “powerful banking interests” or, while praising the caterers for the delicious matzoh, casually referenced the disappearance of Christian children. Nope: According to today’s New York Times, at the Democratic Senate retreat yesterday…
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…, etc.) Casting the Massacre in Religious Terms When I first heard of this latest, horrific incident, I wrote to several of my contacts in Mindanao whose collective sense was one of despair about the outcome. It won’t be long, I was told, before religious colors will be attached to the Maguidanao massacre. It will come in three forms. First, recent histories remind us that the Christian side of Mindanao’s sizable South Cotabato Province was the br…
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…is not a racist bone” in Trump’s body. Presenting Jeffress’s and Graham’s latest remarks in context makes their nakedly self-serving nature obvious, and Jervis, Ramirez, and Ruiz-Goiriena did even better by citing keen observer of the Christian Right Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: Why Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, on how evangelicals will minimize “Trump’s role in the Capitol attack… because many see him not just as an elect…
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…ishers simply wait for the temporary order to expire. Reading parts of the latest round of outings Kiyimba shouts, “They do not understand what they are doing! They are ruining the lives of these young people. These are just kids, nineteen or twenty years.” In Uganda, Kiyimba says, “everybody knows everybody for four square miles.” When someone’s name appears in the paper, “life is over.” While he was in the U.S., three high school boys in Kiyimba…
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…children’s literature? Bubbling up under the surface of The Magicians (the latest novel from Time magazine book critic Lev Grossman) is the stuff of these same sincere elements—the kind many readers relish when looking to escape with a good book. On first glance, he offers us not only a world filled with magic, but a school for young magicians, the adventures of aspiring young sorcerers, magical creatures and spells, fantastic landscapes galore, a…
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