Religion Dispatches
…during a meeting at Penn Jillette’s house in 2010, the church proclaims to welcome all who love the smell of bacon (which can be turkey or vegetarian bacon for those of kosher sensibilities). Also, UCB members like donuts because they are holey as evidenced by Jillette’s Bacon and Donut party held ever year in Las Vegas as part of the Amazing Meeting (TAM). While the UCB consists primarily of skeptics and atheists, the nine commandments of bacon s…
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…ent. Because he held those roles, it meant that I should be respectful and welcome him when he came to my home and that I should accept callings (church service assignments) from him. I’d had other bishops I’d felt comfortable talking over personal or spiritual issues with. I learned, though, that probably Mitt was not that person. Not all bishops are alike in their pastoral or counseling abilities. Right. Later bishops treated me with respect. B…
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…ing in Europe as guest workers, Muslims have long since overextended their welcome. (Caldwell pays no mind to the hundreds of thousands of Muslims, from Senegal to Bengal, who fought for Britain and France in World War II, and so helped save Europe from itself.) Unanswered: Where are these Muslims to go? What are they to do? Caldwell hints that Muslims should convert to Christianity, or otherwise detach themselves from their spiritual identity, bu…
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…ray Vote Stand Summit starts with a flourish as a full orchestra and choir welcomes attendees to the nation’s most influential Christian Right political conference once known as the Values Voter Summit. After a rousing welcome from Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who mentions the anti-abortion Supreme Court Dobbs decision in his first sentence, the conference dives directly into the first panel: Abortion: Answering the Hard Questio…
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…ioners of weird religion aren’t all ones that we (liberals anyway) want to welcome into our homes, but in these essays Sharlet is careful to notice the humanity of the people he is writing about. In good liberal fashion, there would seem to be no one beyond redemption (though some might need a bit more atonement than others). The placement of the first essay, “Sweet Fuck All, Colorado” (you’ll have to read it to get the title), is significant. H…
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…ce floor. It would be amazing. Many mainstream or evangelical churches may welcome you into the pew but never into leadership or other forms of service. You’re calling the church not simply to affirm LGBT people, but to fully accept us. I’m asking the church to dismantle that binary of “us” and “them” that sees anyone coming through the door as an other. My hope would be that [churches] learn to do that not just by trying to understand the queer e…
Read More…now all Enfield Schools students and their families will feel included and welcome at the ceremonies,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “No student should ever have to feel like a second-class citizen at his or her own graduation.” While I agree with that, I think the ACLU and the parents may be missing a teachable moment in all of this. My own high school graduation was held in the school’s auditor…
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…issues and asks some of the questions that will guide this exploration. We welcome your stories. – The Eds _____________ I’m not quite sure when I first read about this kind of concert-going experience, but somewhere along the line some Christian fans started referring to rock concerts as if they were religious experiences, as if going to the coliseum to hear your favorite band was like going to a cathedral for worship. In this analogy, concert-go…
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…ant for a time and place that no longer exists. Tantawi is hardly alone. A perusal of Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam and the huge, footnoted list of influential Muslim scholars, leaders and activists who have repudiated capital punishment for this offense on the “Apostasy and Islam” blog, should definitively put to rest the erroneous notion that modern Muslims uncritically accept this doctrine, even if it has yet to be formally repealed….
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…r all. We can do this! Little did we know… One of my ecumenical colleagues welcomed four school buses to his church parking lot. Each was crammed full of secondhand clothing and cases of bottled water. Other vehicles arrived as well, at each of our churches. Most of them we directed to our community food pantry, located in the Episcopal church building across the street from our church. In no time at all, every one of their Sunday School rooms was…
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