Religion Dispatches
…people try to step around real conflict with mushy criticism “offered in a spirit of reconciliation and dialogue.” It’s healthier and more efficient sometimes to spell out simply and directly what it is that you think people have done wrong, and why. That way it can be discussed openly and honestly and without a lot of passive-aggressive nonsense. Extra points for marshaling scriptural evidence, while we’re at it. Yes, there are many ways to read…
Read More…est brother to it just last year). When I got the news, during the fast, a number of my friends told me just go ahead and stop fasting to address it. But, I thought if I do not get on top of it, this may be my last Ramadan; and I just wanted to finish what I had started. I’m glad I did, but here’s the thing. To stabilize the blood sugar, pre-diabetics and diabetics have to eat smaller meals dispersed through out the day. I started it yesterday but…
Read More…nged life. You are not God’s child until you receive Christ as Savior (John 1:12) When you do receive Him you will be a new creature. There is no way you can point to God’s Word and say we should accept a lifestyle that God’s Word calls an abomination, as Christian behavior. All the hate crime legislation does is give reprobates legitamacy. Homosexuality is not only a sin, it is an abomination, and it is a symptom of a reprobate society. Mark Osga…
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…d, a “kosher cover-up”; that fellow pseudo-journalist Ben Shapiro has “the spirit of anti-Christ”; that Mark Zuckerberg is of “the synagogue of Satan”; and that abortion in America is the fault of “powerful, rich Jews.” Yet the White House still let TruNews “cover” this week’s World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. TruNews’s “reporting” from Davos won’t disappoint its critics: hard-hitting segments include, among other things, the details of…
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…responded to the act of violation in a different way than their heads and spirits were. No matter how humane the Nazi in question was made to seem—he had the power to kill her or those she loved at any time. This retelling of Esther misses a critical piece of the story. We never hear that Ahasuerus and Esther had a great love story because she was property, a girl more beautiful than the others who were culled from the countryside to see who woul…
Read More…ce and forgiveness and Christ commits himself through the work of the Holy Spirit to bring transformation to our lives—a life-long process.” Clifford goes on to talk about how Chalke’s concession will harm the testimony of “ex-gays,” like one Baptist minister who rejected his homosexuality. “This pastor is just one of tens of thousands of Christians who have come to the conclusion that sex was designed by God to be expressed within a committed rel…
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…n any given Sunday, but more likely you will hear “blessed are the poor in spirit.” The words of Jesus are assumed to be about your spiritual life, not your finances—unless, of course, you attend one of the larger, far more successful churches where the “prosperity gospel” is preached, where the word is always about your finances. If you believe, keep the right company, straighten out your life, and tithe, you will prosper. The millionaire preachi…
Read More…ul H. Dunn was a high-ranking leader in the LDS Church during the 1970s and 1980s. He gave public talks, as LDS Church leaders are expected to do, and wrote over fifty books. In a couple of those books, Dunn described how he had played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. That he’d pitched to Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams and rubbed elbows with Stan Musial. He also told stories about his service in World War II. He said that he was one of six sol…
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…r year. It is possible to study the celebration of Passover as a Christian spiritual group if it is done with respect and knowledge. My own church hosts a Mediterranean potluck with hummus, pitas, falafel, and we read the Passover story from the Bible, look at haggadot of all types and discuss the elements—but do not actually go through the ritual of the seder. We leave speculation of which prophecies Jesus fulfilled for a different time and focus…
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…museum escape the fiction of its own secularity and thereby rediscover its spiritual roots, its spiritual task? It is telling that Sweeney’s bold vision was not entirely successful. He resigned from the Guggenheim when Harry Frank Guggenheim encouraged him to promote “a more popular educational approach.” And he was later asked to step down from his post at the Houston Museum when his “innovative if controversial curatorial approach came up agains…
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