Religion Dispatches
…“We brought them with no expectations and we were highly pleased with the number who decided Ted is the right man to be of the president of the U.S.” When judging these statements (particularly the words “very diverse,” “significant standing” and “the number”), keep in mind that Barton is known (among evangelicals) for playing fast and loose with facts. Three years ago, the evangelical publisher Thomas Nelson halted publication of one of Barton’s…
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…lition and the way it carries out its politics has dynamically evolved. “A number of Christian right legal agencies have produced manuals for churches and related institutions, to rewrite such things as job descriptions to extend the legal definition of ‘ministry’ in order to seek exemption from labor standards and civil rights laws, and to inoculate themselves against discrimination lawsuits.” Thus, assumptions most of us have about the nature of…
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…d failed to remove a priest accused of rape,” according to a report in the Washington Post. Yet despite his relatively brief tenure the damage had been done. Over the past decade, the OCA has continued to follow the path that Metropolitan Jonah laid for it. It should not go unnoticed that Metropolitan Tikhon, the current head of the OCA, is also a convert from the Episcopal Church, and one who seems equally fixated on culture war issues—particular…
Read More…perous Justice Party (PKS), a conservative Islamist party that has a small number of seats in the National Assembly. Reuters’ Alisa Tang reported on Tuesday on the climate of fear that has been created: LGBT activists, facing a barrage of homophobia and hate speech by Indonesian authorities, are setting up hotlines and safehouses, while “unfriending” people on social media and deleting website directories that could expose them to violence.” The i…
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…ot us into the financial crisis, and yet their CEO has been running around Washington saying, “We don’t need Dodd-Frank. We need to regulate ourselves. We’re in fine shape.” He’s pressuring the bankers to do exactly the same thing that brought the meltdown. They are not evil in and of themselves, they are simply tempted by that much money. That much money tempts a lot. I lifted the column right out of Dreaming of Eden because it happens over and o…
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…say that Washington “elites” wouldn’t have listened anyway: The elites in Washington find it extremely difficult, at least between New York and Los Angeles, to talk about the role of our Creator in defining America. And I think all of the secondary arguments — Judge Moore’s arguments, for example — come from winning this argument: That is historically false, to suggest that you can describe America as a society whose rights come from any place ot…
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…eader A. Philip Randolph, for whom he continued to work after the March on Washington. And, consistent with the long Quaker tradition of pacifism (“all wars and fightings with carnal weapons we deny”) Rustin was a tireless peace activist, working with both the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the War Resisters League. He was himself a draft resister during World War II and was imprisoned from 1944 to 1947 as a result of his disobedience to the 194…
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…Sojourners who yanked out the tent poles. Someone needs to alert official Washington that Jim Wallis and his minions no longer speak for us—if they ever did.” Naughton raises an important point: whether Wallis actually represents a movement that could be described as the religious left is highly doubtful. First, Wallis himself has rejected the “religious left” label. Moreover, many who would consider themselves on the religious left reject Wallis…
Read More…to introduce himself. Seventeen years later, I interviewed Hatfield in his Washington office for a PBS documentary on Billy Graham. As the cameras were setting up, I casually mentioned that I had spent a glorious semester in Oregon seventeen years earlier. “Oh yes,” the senator replied without missing a beat. “I think I met the head of that program at a restaurant a while back.” That exchange started us talking about faith and politics. We commise…
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…a and becomes an actor in the nation’s drama. Not only do the monuments of Washington [DC] retell the story of the nation but… they change national history itself.” Such is the case with King’s own story concerning the Lincoln Memorial, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, which is part of why placing a representation of him on the steps would have been so radical. Savage’s proposed memorial would have been an acknowledgement th…
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