Religion Dispatches
…television. Atheists breathed a sign of relief when Richard Dawkins was mocked on South Park, thinking, “finally, we’re becoming a part of American culture.” And so we say to every newcomer: Welcome, welcome to the fold. Take the sacrament of laughter. Now you’re one of us. We’re ridiculous, and we admit it freely….
Read More…t of a new form of high Anglican church? Here the ICBC blog points to a not-so-surprising source, Meghan and Harry, a.k.a. the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. (Harry had to go to a rehab clinic after being caught by his dad for smoking cannabis, while Meghan handed out cannabis gift bags at her first wedding in 2016, and has a cannabis strain named after her called Markle’s Sparkle.) As this royal couple continues to break with tradition, will they be…
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…uiverfull, Christian Patriarchy, the Family-Integrated Church, and the Stay-at-Home Daughter (SAHD) Movement. For years he taught at homeschool conventions around the United States, advocating for his ideal of the Christian family. In 2008, another evangelical homeschool leader said Baucham was “the most sought-after homeschool conference speaker around the country.” Family is probably the most significant concern for Baucham—and his thoughts on f…
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…rce, to celebrate Halloween anyway and resolutely take their children trick-or-treating. Even without the lights on, even without instant access to our media-powered story-worlds, we still need to imagine the supernatural. We need our stories, our other-worlds, our costumes, our role-play. We need our dreams. In On Stories (2001), Richard Kearney argues that stories can soothe us because they transport us to different times and places, where we ca…
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…on ask the more difficult kinds of questions that are likely to yield more complex answers: Why did you leave? What did this do to your family? Where did it lead you, spiritually and psychologically? As researcher Andreea Nica noted here on RD in 2018: Leaving fundamentalist, strict religions can have negative health consequences, both perceived and actual, that manifest in the body and mind. Research shows that individuals who come out to family…
Read More…relationships are Islamicly impermissible.” Kevin Andrews, an anti-marriage-equality member of Parliament, compared gay couples to the “affectionate relationship” he has with his cycling buddies. “We go cycling on the weekends, but that’s not marriage,” he told SkyNews. Andrews said that marriage equality would be a “pathway to polygamy. Andrews was named “Natural Family Man of the Year” by the World Congress of Families in 2014. Crikey’s politics…
Read More…arriage; the Senate rejected a marriage equality bill last year. Chile: Pro-Equality President Michelle Bachelet Sworn In In January, we noted the election of pro-equality Michelle Bachelet as the country’s president; her inauguration took place this week. She has been an outspoken advocate for marriage equality, strong hate crimes laws, and the rights of trans people. Lithuania: Set to Vote on Anti-Gay Propaganda Law Human Rights First noted that…
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…x translations), used as an ethics textbook for evangelical seminars. This new book, however, might be more likely to be used as a doorstop in those same hallowed halls. That’s a shame, because there is plenty for anti-LGBT evangelicals to learn here—and plenty here for them to find biblical and theological cover if they find their own hearts and minds moved to change. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that I have been critical of Gus…
Read More…out to overtake the U.S. and ultimately the whole world. Shouting out the answers to “questions” designed to elicit specific responses, it reminded me of a kindergarten teacher who frames questions for students to answer in unison: “the day after Thursday is…” In addition to Stakelbeck, the three-day conference featured author Andrew Bostom, counterterrorism “expert” John Guandolo, Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media (AIM) and Congressmember Allen…
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…rything else in social ethics. Faced with mass unemployment, social workers-turned-government administrators like Harry Hopkins, head of Roosevelt’s Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and his assistant, Aubrey Williams, held the view that unemployment was caused by a lack of jobs, not by the failure of the unemployed to seek or accept work, which was the view (supported by the teaching of classical and neo-classical economists) on which the…
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