Religion Dispatches
…wisdom. Pope Francis does not know whether, or to what extent, the climate changes (in various directions) of the past several decades are anthropogenic—and God is not going to tell him. Nor does he know what their long term effects will be. If anything he teaches depends on views about these things, all he will have to go on is what everybody else has to go on, namely, the analyses offered by scientific specialists who have studied the matter. As…
Read More…t as with evolution, there is absolutely no scientific controversy, but rather agreement. Now that would be a story: evangelical environmentalists going toe-to-toe with the climate change deniers who are out to teach kids that climate change, like evolution or the separation of church and state, is just a myth. …
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…. Say why that’s the case and about how we can still get to the structural change we need under these circumstances. I think most economists and policy people say the biggest step to reducing carbon fast would be to put a hefty price on it that reflects the damage it does in the environment. You could do this in a way that doesn’t beggar people [e.g. fee-and-dividend —ed.]. If you did, we’d all be getting a price signal to change our ways, includi…
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…ll continue to grow. He believes that seeing and hearing these stories can change people’s hearts. He says he was changed in the process of making the movie; getting to know some of the missionaries and IHOP staff as people made it harder to think of them as simply “evil fundamentalists.” And, he says, that after spending so much time with missionary Joanna Watson, he has come to consider her a friend. He says she recently told him that getting to…
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…d they learned more and became more aware. Only two percent said that they changed their minds because they came to believe that gay people are “born that way.” Visibility and education matter, but positive relationships across lines of difference seem to matter even more. Whether we are in agreement or not, conversation is greatly needed. The kind of tribalism that causes people to be suspicious of those they think are not like them will be overc…
Read More…the end of 2018. Botswana: Court tells government to allow trans woman to change legal gender A court ordered government officials to allow a transgender woman to change the gender in official registration and on her national Identity Card. Italy: European Court of Human Rights slams failure to recognize same-sex couples’ marriages On December 14 the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy for refusing to recognize the unions of same-sex c…
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…this time—after all of the atrocious and dangerous behavior—a significant number would turn away and vote for a return to conventional presidential leadership. Where are these defectors? As I write this, election boards around the country have already counted the votes of over 67 million people who want more death, more deception, and more openly racist and exclusionary public policies. And a huge number of these voters identify as Christian. And…
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…hurch in America (OCA). Both are, unsurprisingly, characterized by a large number of American converts in their ranks. Nearly 70% of those in the AOA are converts, while the OCA is about evenly split, 50-50. Similarly, the GOA, arguably the most progressive Orthodox body in America—“progressive” being a relative term—remains almost exclusively composed of ethnic Greeks. Focused on their own ethnic political concerns, including the position of the…
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…secondary problem was the likely horrified white response to having a huge number of newly-freed blacks living among them in both the North and the South. The alleged “degradation” of black people ruled out normal social intercourse—widespread emancipation without separation of the races was unthinkable Although “degradation” was first used to describe the condition of enslaved Africans, by 1810 the term was also being applied to Native Americans….
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…d. Although Magufuli has not said anything publicly about homosexuality, a number of his appointees have made harsh remarks. Critics of gay rights say this nation — which has large numbers of Muslims and Christians — must protect traditional values. In an August speech, Paul Makonda, the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam, the capital, threatened to arrest people who were linked to gay men on social-networking sites. “If there’s a homosexual w…
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