Religion Dispatches
…s. In an undated speech published on Moon’s Universal Peace Federation Web site, de Venecia Jr. stated: One of the great missions of Rev. Moon is to see how we can bring about a unification of the great religions of the world…and under the leadership of Rev. Moon—I had the privilege to present to the Security Council last year—a resolution for a dialogue among civilizations, among religions, among cultures, for an interfaith dialogue and I am happ…
Read More
…can be found under “Progressive Religious Voices” on iTunes and on the Web site companion to the book. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? The entire book is aimed at correcting the mistaken assumption that a person cannot be authentically religious and politically progressive. On the political side, too many people have been given the impression that if they are politically progressive, they must choose between their…
Read More
…loud? Lucia Hulsether: What Are You Doing Right Now? The social networking site Facebook enables its members (the vast majority of whom are students) to post a “status” describing what they are doing and thinking at any given point. This morning I logged on to my computer, and in the last fifteen hours over 400 of my friends had updated their statuses—and literally all of them addressed the election. Ninety-five percent of their statements were pr…
Read More…s “Judgement Houses.” At the Clearwater, Florida-based Judgement House Web site you can find everything you need to stage a truly frightening event, including an informational how-to video and 10 different scripts. Each scripts is “unique in its setting, characters and story and is a relevant interpretation of events happening around the world today. However all of our scripts ask the same important question, ‘What will you do with God’s offer of…
Read More
…and brings down the other,” Engle said in a recent video on The Call’s Web site, explaining how prayer proved victorious over satanic forces in the spiritual warfare of an election, adding, “I directly attribute [Bush’s election] to the prayers of the saints.” Young people at his House of Prayer, said Engle, had been praying about judges for three years when Sandra Day O’Connor retired and William Rehnquist died. As if to prove to his acolytes tha…
Read More…t seriously] and the “Waterboard Barack Obama” posting on the official Web site of the Sacramento Republican Party have pushed me over the cliff of compassion and attempts at understanding the conservative agenda. The RNC can no longer simply denounce such hateful acts without first admitting that the Republican “southern strategy” of racial division has become their national modus operandi and self-definition. As far as the Grand Ol’ Party is con…
Read More
…the same time, the Discovery and Expelled’s marketing team unveiled a Web site touting suggested legislation to “protect academic freedom” by encouraging the teaching of alternative theories of controversial subjects, such as evolution. In the scientific community, evolutionary theory is a considered to be the unifying principle of biology. But despite the fact that there is no scientific controversy, lawmakers from several states pushed this sam…
Read More
…y on wheels) a 12-foot cross around the world, posted the story on his Web site in October 2001, noting that he met with George W. Bush a full year earlier than Graham. “Mr. George W. Bush,” wrote Blessitt, “a Midland oilman, listened to the radio broadcast and asked one of his friends ‘Can you arrange for me to meet Arthur Blessitt and talk to him about Jesus?’ And so it came to pass.” Wead, Baker reports, “had warned the Bushes that they had to…
Read More…ecomes the spirit, an imaginary municipality, Smalltown, U.S.A., becomes a site of rhetorical pilgrimage, an invocation of place as faith. The only time Pegler ever lived in a small town were his last years, when he moved into the desert outside of Tucson. Much of what he wrote was no longer publishable, but he sat in his empty, pure, American landscape pounding out more and more of it, trying to get at the monster he couldn’t name. Nearly 40 year…
Read More
…the message of opposition strong and the targets general, the Pledge is a site where self-identification as a supporter of its message can also have meaning. The Pledge is less a practical mission statement than a badge of support and understanding. Still, we can understand Rock for Life’s use of the government as including pro-choice legislators and the legal system which has consistently upheld the 1973 decision. The Importance of an American C…
Read More