Religion Dispatches
…, this short distance marked by green lights, to show where Hajar ran, nowadays they say this too is just for men! Women should not run. But then there is another way to shout out for Hajar: the Arabic name for each distance in one direction for the saiy is called a shaut. That’s pretty cool….
Read More…reawakened interest in communities to ‘sanitize,’ more or less, to talk about ‘moral sanitization,’ ” Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said of the law. “Where it was quiet before, it’s gotten people thinking, ‘Who is behaving in a manner that may be gay?’ It’s driven people into the closet.” Officials here in Bauchi say they want to root out, imprison and punish gays….
Read More…the number two most disliked religion in America, have no business contributing to public rage against the number one most disliked religion in America. Nor in trafficking in falsehoods like “Islam is an ideology, not a religion,” a line I’ve been hearing from a few Mormons in recent days. Islam is in fact a religion for which Mormon leaders from the time of George A. Smith and Parley P. Pratt in 1855 have expressed respect. A religion with…
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…e 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution—the number specified in order for the Constitution to be in full and binding effect for all 13 former colonies. Those who prefer a winter birthday might want to go for Dec. 15, 1791, the date on which the required three-fourths of the states had ratified the Bill of Rights. (I know: much too close to Christmas, doesn’t have a chance.) This “birthday” business matters…
Read More…hing religion out of people’s private hearts and minds, and moving people out of the pews across America. The number of nones (people with no religious preference) is on the rise, with over 20% of all Americans claiming this status, and many point to the increased politicization of religion as the cause. This trend of legal victories will, in the long run, very likely create a more secular America. Recent data indicate that this process is already…
Read More…rest of the culture, which may be seen as a nod to critics who question Southern Baptists’ right to make judgments about the legitimacy of gay marriages. Moore also called for all Southern Baptists to “relate to lesbians and gays in a different way” (the omission of “B”s and “T”s was likely intentional), challenging Southern Baptists to take a step back from their “belligerence, outrage, and condemnatory preaching,” and adding that: Many of the p…
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…Then, Olsen says, one of CT’s partners in the Global Christian Alliance cautioned CT about partnering with the Christian Post because “there were allegations that it had ties to the Unification Church.” When CT raised this concern with the CP, Olsen recalls, “they denied it vehemently, threatened to sue us if we ever mentioned the allegation, and ended the discussion.” But it wasn’t until this summer, as the news broke that Olivet University was…
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…ans losing their lives at the hands of hasty harvesters; even a very small number would be too high. But I had a hard time summoning any outrage. In the end I learned much more from Kagan—ironically because his aims are in a way more modest. He wants to convince you of his physicalist stance; however, he doesn’t want to tell you how to reconcile with death. That part is up to you. So maybe it’s not a question of how to live with the fact of our mo…
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…eralism taken to its terrifying end. The killer burns women, stones them, cuts off their arms, cuts apart their bodies. His crimes are described in vivid detail and, just in case words don’t suffice, the viewer gets images too—photograph after photograph of dead women, dismembered, raped, decapitated, covered in animal blood, skulls smashed, and almost always naked. In the film, this religious violence is supposed to be resisted (after all, it is…
Read More…ound one-quarter of the electorate ever since 2000. According to Pew, that number will be a bit lower this time around: about 20%, by their estimate. White evangelicals are losing ground to non-white voters just like all whites, and to the religiously unaffiliated, just like all Christians. Those unaffiliated voters—the “Nones”—now rival white evangelicals in size. About two-thirds of them support Hillary Clinton, making them a solid Democratic co…
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