Religion Dispatches
…h Traffic newsletter reports that he and his wife recently returned from a Boston to Montreal cruise with “about 350 Precept Ministries leaders and donors, teaching the Bible prophecies of Ezekiel 36 and 37 (the rebirth of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land in the last days) and Ezekiel 38 and 39 (the rise of a Russian dictator who will form an alliance with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries to attack and try to dest…
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…y rib cage from the sound of those around me. And when Yogawoman landed in Boston last week, I was in the theater for the screening, closing my eyes and following the guidance of the woman who was introducing the film. “If it moves you, take a deep breath in…,” she told the audience, pausing, “…and out.” Made by Australian filmmaker Kate Clere McIntyre, in collaboration with her husband Michael McIntyre and sister Saraswati Clere, the film is a…
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…tion of powers and run roughshod over the independent judiciary,” said Rob Boston, Senior Policy Counsel for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “The United States enjoys the highest degree of religious liberty of any nation in the world. Gingrich and his allies talk about threats to religious freedom, but what they really want is the right to use government to shove conservative/fundamentalist/ultra-orthodox social views down…
Read More…n health care for religious institutions and people of faith.” Later, on a Boston radio program, Romney himself finally realized what talking points he was supposed to use: “Of course I support the Blunt amendment. I thought he was talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception so I was simply — misunderstood the question and of course I support the Blunt amendment.” A few things. The Blunt amendment would not ban co…
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…a piece of cake. Clinton was respectful and appointed first Ray Flynn, the Boston anti-choice mayor who had supported him and then Lindy Boggs, a pro-life Catholic member of Congress. No mind, the tension between Clinton and the Vatican was palpable, especially around the Clinton administration about face on reproductive health in the UN. Now, it is time for the Obama administration to appoint an ambassador and if early reports are true, the admin…
Read More…ote the NFP agenda of the Family of the America Foundation. More recently, Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, voiced support for federal measures that would divert funding from Planned Parenthood to organizations like Obria, “so women can obtain their health care from providers that do not promote abortion.” Of course, Obria is an anti-choice organization merely masquerading as a provider to ent…
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…artin Luther King, Jr. did not make that mistake. Even though his PhD from Boston University would have placed him in the academic stream, he decided to devote himself completely to the liberation struggle. Our nation is immeasurably better for King’s ability to see these distinctions so clearly: one wishes our own leaders in the AAR could share this vision. [Note: this post has been updated with a link to Professor Strenski’s article in Method…
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…hite evangelical electorate and the significance of Mohler’s announcement. Boston University Professor emerita Nancy Ammerman noted, “I am not at all surprised at Mohler’s move, as he has always been extremely sensitive to the direction of the political winds.” Trump has, after all, vigorously pursued white evangelicals’ culture wars agenda. “They’ve gotten their judges,” Ammerman said, “and those judges are delivering—right down to supporting rel…
Read More…xercises is a recreation of a 1746 incident when a French fleet threatened Boston. A teacher playing Thomas Prince leads the students in prayer and “call[s] upon God to bring a storm and wipe out the ships,” whereupon their prayers are answered, showing God’s special protection of America. The lesson then connects the site of Prince’s prayer, the Old South Church, to Samuel Adams and thus to the American Revolution. It trumpets the role of the “Bl…
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…uggests that Tauscher’s legislation has a decent chance of passage. And in Boston on Tuesday, a gay and lesbian advocacy group filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging one of the key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act, another of Bill Clinton’s sops to the right wing. The plaintiffs argue that, because same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, the “one man and one woman” language in DOMA violates the Constitution’s equal protection c…
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