Religion Dispatches
…conservatism. To show how definitions of “religion” and “spirituality” are used rhetorically we need only consider how AA Toronto Intergroup, when charged with discrimination on the basis of creed back in 2014, defended itself by invoking section 18 of the Human Rights code, which allows a religious group to restrict participation to the faithful. So while AA presents itself to the public as a “spiritual” program, distinguishing itself from “relig…
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…ding the protocol for who can issue a license if those elected to do so refuse is daunting. If a county clerk, their deputy clerks, and a judge all refuse to sign and issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, the bill allows the clerk to appoint someone—who need not be employed by or appointed by the state, county, or locality—who can administer the oath and sign the license. Imagine if you’re a same-sex couple living in Texas who has decided…
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…conservatism. To show how definitions of “religion” and “spirituality” are used rhetorically we need only consider how AA Toronto Intergroup, when charged with discrimination on the basis of creed back in 2014, defended itself by invoking section 18 of the Human Rights code, which allows a religious group to restrict participation to the faithful. So while AA presents itself to the public as a “spiritual” program, distinguishing itself from “relig…
Read More…exemptions. From The Sydney Morning Herald’s Eryk Bagshaw: The Greens will use Phillip Ruddock’s review of religious freedoms to build momentum for an Australian bill of rights and with Labor’s support it could be put before a Senate inquiry as early as next year. The Coalition, the Greens and the Opposition will clash over religious freedoms when Parliament resumes in February after Treasurer Scott Morrison vowed to defend Christianity from discr…
Read More…avel to Romania, where she called marriage equality an attack on religious freedom and used her own story to urge voters in an upcoming national referendum to support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman. Despite the fact that more than two dozen countries have embraced marriage equality, the argument that religious objections should trump LGBT equality is gaining steam globally, with worrying consequences f…
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…e that a change in the definition of marriage is unwarranted, not just because it is in opposition to the teaching of scripture and our Lord himself in Matthew 19,” he said “But because I believe marriage, traditionally understood as a union of one man and one woman, is a positive good for our society, where marriage and the procreation of children are bound together as the foundational fabric of our society, notwithstanding the sad reality that n…
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…y a group calling itself the National Conference of Citizens for Religious Freedom, led by Methodist minister Norman Vincent Peale, which claimed that Kennedy couldn’t be trusted to govern fairly because “his church insists that he is duty bound to admit to its direction.” But that attack, while animated by anti-Catholic aniumus, gave Kennedy a chance to explain how his Catholicism would function in relation to his duties as a pubic servant and of…
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…ced the First Amendment Defense Act, which sought to elevate those who espouse conservative Christian views on sexuality and gender to a federally protected class—a goal that seems to track with Moore’s own Reconstructionist tendencies.) But the precise makeup of the Senate for the bulk of Moore’s term is still undetermined—and regardless, Democrats face a Sisyphean battle when it comes to turning the Senate blue in 2018. Like many of the bills in…
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…? Why? In addition to Mitch Duneier’s Sidewalk, I would say Eli Anderson’s Code of the Street. It’s such a wonderful example of using the ethnographic method to dig beneath common stereotypes and reveal the social dynamics underlying a supposedly well-understood phenomenon. In his case, he’s looking at the situation of inner-city violence among young African American men. By carefully observing, listening, documenting, and then analyzing, he is ab…
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…et’s start with “sodomy.” It’s a Christian word, with a complex history of use and abuse in churches. Although it pretends to be biblical, it was in fact a theological coinage. The Genesis story about the city of Sodom is notably unclear about why its residents deserved divine destruction. Some readers conclude that the Sodomites wanted to rape visiting angels, but the prophet Ezekiel names the inhabitants’ crime as greedy, hard-hearted pride (see…
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