Religion Dispatches
…that happened over a twelve month period in my family’s life (as well as a number of flashbacks from when I was a young boy). In addition, there were a number of things I didn’t get the chance to explore for a very practical reason: I had a deadline. Working in publishing I’m very conscious about how important deadlines are. Writers need to make those deadlines and because I worked in the industry I wanted to be respectful about that. There were a…
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…k J. Lawrence, who joined deputies from the diocese in “differentiating themselves” from the actions of the voting bodies by leaving the General Convention. (Note to Mr. Askie: No evidence of anyone “storming out” is to be found in reports from the South Carolina bishop and deputies themselves or those who attended to their concerns, even when they disagreed, as the group announced its decision to leave.) On Sunday, July 15, Lawrence issued a past…
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…s our country has, to take in 250,000—some of whom are going to have problems, big problems—is just insane. We have to be insane. Terrible,” he said at a rally in Beaumont. It was noted that the 250,000 number was seemingly pulled from thin air, a ghastly specter of invasion at a scale larger than most of our cities. There were later comments about poisonous Skittles made by one of his idiotic children. *** Consider the travel ban clearly targetin…
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…atheism: the first concerns God as an open question and the latter proclaims there is no God. In terms of the story line, this distinction doesn’t matter. Both positions are outside the safety of belief and are foreign to black life and thought. Sure, there are humorous moments, but in general the episode is marked by affirmation of problematic assumptions limiting the number of those who qualify as “black” by restricting what constitutes an acce…
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…ongnize a substantial shift in alliances, between former enemies like Muslims, and former friends like Humanists. While the idea of Muslim-Christian alliance seems particularly far-fetched at the end of this summer, Kreeft’s larger point has resonated with a number of religious leaders. Echoing Pope John Paul II’s prediction that third millennium could be marked by a unified Christianity, Kreeft predicted: “The age of religious wars is ending; the…
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…a has gone through a startling increase in recent decades. Since 1980, the number of African Catholics has grown by 238%, in contrast to Europe, where it has grown by only 6%. Some of this may be attributable to higher fertility rates in African countries, but it also reflects the church’s success in missionary efforts. And where there are a decreasing number of vocations to the priesthood in Europe, where vocations have declined by 23%, African v…
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…man Catholic WomenPriests webpage and count the black faces—then count the number of graduate degrees after the names of the almost exclusively white women interviewed in Pink Smoke.) As the African-American students at the black seminary I attended used to say to the liberal white women who cross-registered there, “Who ‘we,’ white girl?” The pity of all this is that the exclusion of women from Roman Catholic ordination really is an injustice, one…
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…cals are converting to Catholicism: intellectual hunger. White describes himself as a “victim of Church history classes that start in 1517,” the year Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses. That is, until he took a course entitled “Foundations of Judeo-Christian Thought” at TKC. It “raised certain questions within me,” he says of the course. White cites Boston College philosophy professor and TKC visiting faculty member Peter Kreeft’s Catholi…
Read More…inciples so it’s kind of important when you see a poll that says a growing number of Americans think you might be a Muslim. The President continues to tell everyone he’s a Christian but yet the number rises. See that? Which came first, the thought he was a Muslim or the lack of trust? If he is a Muslim, he can’t be trusted? Or if you can’t trust him, he must be a Muslim? In any case, Obama strained mightily to placate the likes of Graham and Brody…
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…establish itself as an exclusively conservative institution.” The claim seems wholly justified in light of the shutting down of the student newspaper, the new ban on women teaching Bible classes to men, and the suspicious circumstances in which the philosophy major was dissolved (the administration denies political motivation). Gordon College, known not long ago as a haven for moderate and progressive voices within evangelicalism, had its accredit…
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