Religion Dispatches
…r: Sarah Palin is a smart missile aimed at the heart of the left”; “The Not-So-Inscrutable Reasons Behind the Sarah Surge”; and “Petty Attacks on Palin Could Backfire at the Ballot Box.” Obama’s Christian Merch: Christianity Today reports that the Obama campaign has introduced “a line of merchandise, most of which specifically target Christians.” The “Believers for Barack” button “includes the ichthys, the fish outline that became a secret symbol…
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…, you have destroyed the concept of an excellent woman.” By posing this all-or-nothing approach to gender and using cherry-picked Bible verses to justify it, Merkle sets up viewers to accept her worldview without understanding the context from which this ideology originates. So who is Rebekah Merkle, and why is she the expert on how women should live? Unsurprisingly, Merkle is the daughter of Doug Wilson and the wife of Ben Merkle, the president o…
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…of the Six-Day War in Israel. At this point, you may be getting those Ouija-board-chills, or perhaps even sensing the whiff of the occult. These creepy coincidences can work all so well, in fact, that Hagee himself is sensitive to the possibility that he’s dabbling in witchcraft. So, in a neat bit of circular logic, Hagee explains that the blood moon prophecy isn’t witchery. “Astrology,” he says, “is a false science” and a form witchcraft, while “…
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…emporary conservatives tell us, merely a competition of natural drives, dog-eat-dog, live-and-let-die? Surely one could think so; nature is indeed ruthless. But is there not, as our religious teachings insist, also a mysterious human impulse toward transcendence of that nature? A pull also toward empathy, love, and beauty? None of these make any sense, and none of them bring worldly reward. As Job and The Tree of Life both make clear, the good su…
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…be kept between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. (See section 28-34-134 of the bill, requirements (1) and (2).) By contrast, the Kansas Department of Health licensing survey for other ASCs contains no mention of room temperature. Nor does the Risk Management Survey Report for ASCs. The Kansas regulations for freestanding childbirth centers do specify room temperature, but stipulate only that the entire facility must stay between 68 an…
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…ves in the ruling coalition are divided on the idea of holding a plebiscite-by-mail on marriage equality, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Such a vote would be far less expensive than a traditional vote, and would not be compulsory. The government could decide to hold it without an election. Advocates for marriage equality, who have strongly resisted calls for a plebiscite, oppose the new proposal, as do some opponents of marriage equality who a…
Read More…ncis decries ‘ideological colonization’ on gender LGBT hopes for the who-am-I-to-judge Pope Francis sank a bit this week when the Vatican released the transcript of a meeting between the pope and bishops in Poland last week, in which Francis used harsh language to decry what anti-LGBT conservatives call “gender ideology.” From the transcript: I would like to conclude with this aspect, since behind all this there are ideologies. In Europe, America,…
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…ive tone.” Placing their film in context, they suggest that “Like the Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp, the film will present these incredibly provocative characters in an objective and often sympathetic light. We will ask the audience to come to their own conclusions about the connections between religion and condoned violence, as well as explore the growing mainstreaming of MMA in the US, and discuss Christianity in our post-modern society.” But while…
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…ntorum used an erroneous, but dominant, perception that the Dutch are a pot-smoking, baby-aborting, and, now, an elderly-killing people, and he used it to promote his own agenda. A false, but oft-heard stereotype of US citizens is that they are all fat. I, willfully, used this stereotype to further my own agenda. Again, I apologize, because I think it is wrong to do so. Someone who is aiming for the highest office in the United States, as Santorum…
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…n the law was not doing its job. After, say, five attempted escapes by a 14-year-old girl who was about to get married and nobody was protecting her, then yeah, you cross the line and you do the right thing. Then you have to stand back and see how that affects your story. It’s a really tough road but we felt like that this was the type of story that had to be told with this amount of intimacy. TM: For instance, if the kids want desperately for the…
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