Religion Dispatches
…Listen to a podcast of the Ticket 2016, during which I talked about religion in the 2016 presidential campaign with Austin, Texas NPR affiliate KUT’s Ben Philpott and the Texas Tribune’s Jay Root:…
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…texts in real-world policymaking. For example, U.S. Rep. Jody Arrington of Texas supports increasing work requirements for adults who qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To support his position, he cites 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” [KJV]). The novel is a classic because it deals with themes of power, agency and voice. The Handma…
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…istory,” said McKissic, who leads Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. “I am offended that the committee is by and large made up of no minorities. You’ve got 20 percent minorities in the Convention, only one black person was there [on the committee], and they’re almost forced to go along to get along.” The insult inherent in that lack of representation was compounded by what McKissic sees as dishonest justifications for dismissing his r…
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…beyond the usual marrying age and the other an unwed pregnant virgin.) In Texas, a state law adopted just last year permits adoption and foster care agencies to turn away prospective parents for sincerely held religious reasons. The women in this case, however, are suing in federal court, since the Catholic Charities program in question is funded through an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. The local Catholic diocese responded t…
Read More…beyond the usual marrying age and the other an unwed pregnant virgin.) In Texas, a state law adopted just last year permits adoption and foster care agencies to turn away prospective parents for sincerely held religious reasons. The women in this case, however, are suing in federal court, since the Catholic Charities program in question is funded through an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. The local Catholic diocese responded t…
Read More…large and hugely successful two-day conference hosted in Austin or Dallas, Texas, and live-streamed to thousands of small gatherings across the country. On stage, IF speakers do not talk explicitly about abortion, gun laws, regulating the bathrooms of transgender people, or immigration. Instead, they talk about how women’s relationships and compassion for the downtrodden can help solve social problems like poverty, homelessness, sex trafficking, a…
Read More…underappreciated stories of our time: the politics of Dominionism, which a number of scholars have described as the driving ideology of the white evangelical protestant wing of the Christian right. Christian nationalism, the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation, and that this must somehow be restored, was once little appreciated outside the Christian right and a relative handful of dedicated scholars and journalists. But it has beco…
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…quent blogger, Bart Barber pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, told me that the change isn’t as stark as it seems: “From what I’ve been able to see, Richard Land and Russell Moore are in exactly the same place on issues.” Perhaps. But some things do look different. When Farmersville was recently embroiled in a bitter controversy over whether a Muslim cemetery could open in the little North Texas town, the town’s two Baptist past…
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…es like bathrooms and locker rooms. And with high-profile politicians like Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick holding press conferences that perpetuate these lies to gin up fear, the people who will bear the brunt of this animus are those who are gender-nonconforming, feminine-presenting, and people of color. But you wouldn’t know any of that by looking at the panicked reports coming from the religious right or their “strange bedfellows,” Women’s Liberati…
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…s from the cathedral on a rope and whisks La Esmeralda to safety, crying, “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” As long as she remains in the cathedral with him, Esmeralda will be safe from her otherwise imminent execution. As Hugo explains, “Every city during the Middle Ages, and every city in France down to the time of Louis XII. had its places of asylum. These sanctuaries, in the midst of the deluge of penal and barbarous jurisdictions which inundated the ci…
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