Religion Dispatches
…lescence that it wouldn’t have been as horrible as it was, but perhaps the latest rash of gay teen suicides puts the lie to that belief. We have tons of out celebrities, writers, and performers, and still teens are getting the message that their lives are somehow less than others, that their lives are evil and not worth living. I blame the religious right and their insistence on their “religious freedom” to condemn and bully LGBT people for this c…
Read More…ism at the Times move beyond Maureen Dowd’s sneering recap of Bill Maher’s latest stand-up routine, it would also be terrific to see the nation’s paper of record solicit its Mormon content from some of the nation’s most knowledgeable interpreters of Mormon political experience, like Penn’s Sally Gordon or Vanderbilt’s Kathleen Flake. For those who tell the Mormon story best know that there is nothing exceptionally peculiar in Mormonism’s transitio…
Read More…ld get out of committee is a big step for the eventual repeal of DOMA. The latest polls show that a slim majority, 53 percent, of the population now favors marriage equality for gays and lesbians. The political reality is that is often takes time for the people’s will to ever see the light of day in Congress, so DOMA may remain the law of the land for the foreseeable future, but this vote gives it momentum in the right direction. Reaction from the…
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…l-T, the guarantee of an honest God, released one last statement after his latest date for the final coming of Christ passed without incident. The Christian Post ran the text of that statement with a six-paragraph story. The headline: “Family Radio Founder Harold Camping Repents, Apologizes for False Teachings.” The headline was picked up and re-run by several dozen media outlets. The Huffington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and others all ran…
Read MoreIn her latest column, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly argues that Rick Perry’s 20 percent flat tax plan is, like gay marriage, “anti-family” since it would “eliminate all tax advantages for married couples in which one spouse is the primary breadwinner.” Schlafly, unimpressed by the Perry campaign’s insistence that the plan protects the middle class, responds with my favorite line: “Regardless of income, you can’t be middle class without res…
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…ive, nearly fully Muslim country, whose recently deposed tyrant frequently promoted Islamic practices and pieties. If we read the Arab Spring as a zero-sum game between Islamists and secularists, we’re going to miss what’s happening; if we imagine Arab democracy will look like secular Western democracy, we will likely be disappointed. And if we assume reference to Islam and democracy reveals only hypocrisy, insincerity, or ideological confusion, w…
Read More…el Osteen—but the attack launched on him by Albert Mohler Jr. for Osteen’s latest appearance on Piers Morgan’s show prompts me to do so. Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, writes over at The Christian Post that Osteen’s inability to stand up for Christian convictions makes him the worst kind of Christian spokesperson. It’s true, Osteen spent a lot of time bobbing and weaving on topics like a…
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…igations of actually practicing a religion.” The Reverend Lillian Daniel’s latest book, When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough, will not disappoint readers who have come to enjoy her self-deprecating humor, her theological insights, and of course, snarky jabs at those fence-sitters who want it all: the SBNR. The book is a collection of stories and essays, some more sermonic than others. There is a lovely reflection on being the “stand-in…
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…s a fight about numbers. And balance. And the virtue of justice. What this latest budget battle, and the question of raising the debt ceiling, and the straw polls are revealing, is just how Tertullian a wing of the Republican Party has become. It not only offers absurd arguments with a straight face, but actually insists that belief in the absurdity of the nation’s fundamental fiscal health is a central tenet of the true faith: patriotism. To expr…
Read More…veyors of smack and sensationalism, like Bill Maher and the authors of the latest Romney tell-all biography. Polygamy reference? Check. Gratuitous exposure of Mormon ceremonial clothing? Check. Implications of sinistererness? Check. Not in recent memory has the nation’s paper of record published well-conceived, well-executed commentaries on the faith of the presumptive GOP nominee by people who actually understand Mormonism and its fascinating…
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