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Fasting and Faithy Friends of Convenience

…as one of President Obama’s “spiritual advisors,” and was one of the early promoters of, and advisors to, Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. But on this issue, Wallis seems to have lost—if he ever actually had—his influence. As E.J. Dionne (also a fan of government partnerships with faith-based groups) wondered in the Washington Post yesterday, in reacting to Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal: Will President Obama welcome

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New Doc Strives for Christian Unity—But What if Unity is the Problem?

…tly despite itself, it ends up demonstrating the ways in which compassion, welcome, and faith can be weaponized as political tools against marginalized people who stand outside the circle of compassion. Unity is never universal, which means that when people call for unity, the first questions should be: unity for what? and: unity against whom? When Christians today start talking about the need to bridge divisions among themselves, LGBT people—thou…

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The Left Behind: Why Are White American Christians So Racist?

…the most progressive denominations. In that sense, his book may serve as a welcome call to repentance to Christians who think their church is doing better on racial issues than it really is. But will White Too Long be able to provoke change on a broader, more systemic level? I’m less sure of that. Obviously, there aren’t too many white churches where people sit around on Sunday morning talking about ways to do a racism in the coming week. There ar…

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Israel Claims Holy Sites, Reignites Religious Flashpoint

…fter passing through a military checkpoint. Christians and Muslims are not welcome. As an occupying power, Israel is required by international law to preserve the status quo and to act for the benefit of the local civilian population. But Israel claimed security reasons for its Jewish-only access. “These are Muslim holy sites,” explained Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, head of the Palestinian Shari’a Islamic courts. Tamimi remembers praying in the Bilal Mos…

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Confession Fail: iPhone App Controversy Muddies the Sacramental Waters

…clesiastically robust Penance app has managed. (Note to developers: You’re welcome.) Nonetheless, even more careful, socially-sensitive design cannot be guaranteed to save the doctrinal day in a world defined much more by improvisation than by obedience. That is, regardless of how developers intend for an application to be used, the very nature of the culture shaped by digital social media allows that users will come up with new, creative, and, in…

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Condoms and Common Sense

…other sexually transmitted infections than is an exclusive focus on condom promotion. Regrettably, however, many scientists, HIV prevention educators, and AIDS activists are so fixed on condom promotion that they do not give due attention to the risk avoidance that is possible to achieve through abstinence outside marriage and mutual, lifelong fidelity within marriage.” Who, one asks, are these scientists who believe in the “exclusive focus on con…

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Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God

…zation took center stage, preparing the way for a modern period that would welcome both humanistic individualism and the eventual triumph of reason and science. The early modern world was astir with cultural renewal, technological innovation, and religious reformation. The printing press captured the oral tradition on the written page, and the printed word became a matter of depersonalized, static precision. Henceforth, all religious quarrels (bot…

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Lying about Santa: The Irrelevance of Proof to the Holiday Spirit

…very idea of finding a tent in the house was so foreign, and truthfully so welcome, that it could only come from a source that was Wholly Other. Irrespective of anything that might be regarded as proof, at least until my father announced plans for an upcoming camping trip, that novelty and unforeseen possibility had no other name for me than Santa. “Sorry, I didn’t really get to talking about God,” Hook told me when I went up to congratulate him a…

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Keep it Catholic, Catholics: A Response to Michael Sean Winters’ Attack on Frances Kissling in America

…ted to do. This is what Catholic looks like in the twenty-first century. I welcome and respect such transparent statements from other Catholics so we know who stands where. But such statements are rare when the risk of being labeled “not Catholic,” or “not approved by the Vatican,” or for politicians, being denied Communion, is all too real. I am an active participant in contemporary intellectual and activist work. But I will not engage, especiall…

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As Problems for Pregnant People Increase, Catholic Bishops Claim They’re Heroes For Ending Abortion Rights

…“the unborn.” That tells a pregnant person all they need to know about the welcome they won’t receive. What would motivate someone to darken that door for counseling, access to reproductive options, or material support to live out their choice? Who’s kidding whom to say that the bishops, who promote the Hyde Amendment and oppose the Affordable Care Act, are serious when they say “our society can and must protect and care for both women and their c…

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