Religion Dispatches
…speculated that Jesus’ healing of a febrile woman may have been the first reported cure of influenza. However, Virology Journal quickly retracted and apologized for the article and its explanation of the New Testament miracle. Save a soul and win a prize. $250 to spend at Ziggy’s Fun Park! Here’s a look inside a Hindu home adjoining a temple in the Bronx. While in West Sayville, New York an Indian Christian parade draws interest from the surround…
Read More
…l boat can run as much as $5,000. Nguyen and his colleagues at VAYLA have been traveling up and down the Gulf Coast talking to fishers—all fishers, not just Vietnamese—to gather for a report. That report will go not only to Congressman Cao, but also Father Vien, who’ll then see to it that the communities get what they need….
Read More
…and prosperity for all, not just for ourselves. Palin’s insistence on freedom seems to suggest freedom for oneself, without assuming any responsibility for others; a perspective that would create a wild realm in which each person looks out for herself, not for the collective. Yet again, that is not the message of the Bible. When God points out immoral behavior, it is of the collective people, not individuals. The prophet Amos condemns the crimes…
Read MoreRep. Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat best known for insisting on the inclusion of a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops-approved abortion restriction in the House health care bill, is back on a media blitz, insisting he has enough Democratic allies in the House to kill the health care reform proposal headed for reconciliation because it insufficiently restricts abortion. But a Catholic group that in the past has allied itself with the teaching…
Read More
…ving them their stamp of approval. In the Pennsylvania Statehouse, a state rep delivered a jaw-dropping invocation meant to intimidate the state’s first female Muslim legislator on the very day she was sworn in. The House quickly divided along religious lines in the wake of the “Jesus”-laden prayer. The Georgia House suffered through a sermon and then a prayer, both of which condemned all non-Christians—all non-Baptists, really—to an eternity of t…
Read More…te or drop it entirely.” It’s disturbing the number of assaults on women’s reproductive freedom that have taken place in the past couple months, from bills that would deny private insurance companies from providing abortion coverage to congressional Republicans’ proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood’s family services, which would include cancer screenings. But none have been as stomach-lurching as a South Dakota bill that could make it legal to…
Read More…are nothing less than attacks on those values that are the pillars of our republic and the guarantors of our freedom. They erode our national well being. Those who commit these crimes do so fully intending to tear at the too-often frayed threads of diversity that bind us together and make us strong. They seek to divide and conquer. They seek to tear us apart from within, pitting American against American, fomenting violence and civil discord. Eve…
Read More…d, family, and a fundamentalist education. Another example is South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem, whose 2013 interview700 Club is being replayed on the network’s The Brody File. “Even though ‘Kristi the congresswoman’ pushes for conservative policy,” host David Brody tells us, “as a believer in Jesus Christ, she’s got something even bigger on her mind.” “You know He placed me there, yes, to work on policy,” Noem tells Brody, “but maybe my biggest job…
Read More…tinized by a House committee. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has authored a bill to repeal DOMA, which has had deep and dire consequences for gay and lesbian people. Ron Wallen, a 77-year-old veteran and resident of Indio, Calif., spoke plaintively in his allotted five minutes about how the 1996 law has cost him his home because he does not qualify for Social Security survivor benefits. Wallen’s husband, Tom Corrollo, died in March of leukemia after the co…
Read More
…ay, Tuscaloosa). Folks who wrinkle their noses at Muslim modest fashion seldom express the same concerns about conservative Christian women in long skirts and long-sleeved blouses. We know how you do, America. We work on racialization and religious intolerance. As we discussed on our “Religion Is Not Done with You” episode, we also know that Muslim-coded people don’t get to opt out of Islam: “Arab-looking” folks, folks with “Muslim-sounding” names…
Read More