Religion Dispatches
…. He marched along with a thousand men, including Nickelberry, all holding signs that said, “I Am A Man.” The night of his famous last speech, he had not been scheduled, but had arrived at the urging of his friend and confidant the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life,” King said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mounta…
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…something here I haven’t thought about?’ And those who experienced it as a significant problem two years ago still experience it as a significant problem. A problem that to many is even exacerbated because the church wants to just do Business As Usual. I know plenty of LDS people who are in no mood to do Business As Usual. Even in the heart of institutional Mormonism, many LDS people remain conflicted, sensitive, unclear, ambivalent, and tender ab…
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…the hands of the clergy, and that’s the end. I don’t mean to minimize the significance of either—for so many people, enough really is enough. It’s too painful to go back. What I’m proposing is a struggle, but a necessary one. But their significance can be exaggerated. When progressives leave their counterparts shape the Church more and more as they like it. Some have tried forming alternative Catholic communities, groups that celebrate their own…
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…t this did make me think about the phenomenon of interfaith as it is being promoted these days. First of all, this is not an idea promoted by the oppressed to invite others to celebrate their faith. It is something those already in power or with privilege extend to make an opening or orchestrate a collective. This means, those who do get invitations are usually at a disadvantage. If nothing else, it could be from the mere organizational standpoint…
Read More…ing the off-season. An update on the Oklahoma atheist billboard story. The sign reads “Atheism is OK in Oklahoma.” A billboard company has answered the atheists with signs reading: “Why settle for OK? God promises MORE” and “God is more than OK in Oklahoma.” Take that. The Oklevueha Native American Church of Utah is suing to prevent state and federal authorities from arresting and prosecuting church members for peyote possession and use. Only memb…
Read More…ion of Independence is a document Gingrich maintains proves “American exceptionalism,” which of course a Kenyan anti-colonialist doesn’t understand either. In a depressing, ridiculous, maddening sign of the times, the White House press office actually issued a statement to Brody that “The President is in full agreement with the Declaration of Independence.”…
Read More…ent from an anonymous person with the name Amina Wadud to my professional specification, but I will take that as a good sign for now….
Read More…s, as some anti-UN activists maintain, that the UN is an organization that promotes eugenics. Concerned Women for America has claimed that the UNFPA has been “intimately involved” in the promoting abortion in China under that country’s one-child policy, which it claims has killed a number of people “comparable to the horrendous genocides by Hitler and Pol Pot.” (The eugenics falsehood is also disseminated about Planned Parenthood, and in this coun…
Read More…can Family Association, who swears that Jesus, if he were in charge, would sign the Arizona immigration measure into law “in a heartbeat.” Why, I asked rhetorically? “Because of his compassion.” This compassion is for the citizens of Arizona who are subject to home invasions, out-of-control drug trafficking, human smuggling, the constant threat of kidnappings, and a $2.7 billion price tag for all the social problems caused by illegal aliens. The c…
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…. Still, we wound our way through the city. Most of the time we followed a sign that said “Masjid al-Haram” in Arabic and English, so it was pretty clear we were going in the right direction. Well, that is until we did a few U-turns and went through a few tunnels. First U-turn was forced by a police by a blockade. It seemed, we were nearing the mosque, because droves of people started to walk beside us on the road, on the sidewalk, or in the stree…
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