Religion Dispatches
…let’s be serious. To be clear, Williams was fired for being insubordinate. Welcome to the world of corporations that have standard hiring and firing practices. His speech was not censored, nor is this a discussion about sensitivities. However, Jillian York is right, we shouldn’t let this end the conversation about how we talk about religion in America. We should make this the beginning. Williams is a sideshow; let’s stay focused on the main event….
Read More…out obvious hassle. We came down the side of a mountain, passed an outsize welcome billboard on which, for the first time, the Cyrillic and Latin scripts were flipped, and so knew we were in the RS. It’s the same country. Except it is not. The contrast between the two regions is unexpected—although I only passed through Serb areas around Sarajevo, economically unimportant to the shared national capital (shared politically, that is; demographically…
Read More
…immigration reform? It’s very clear that the teachings of our faith are to welcome the immigrant, to care for those at the margins, to respond to the needs of the stranger. All the gospel stories are about that whether it’s the Samaritan woman at the well or the Good Samaritan. Samaritans were strangers and aliens. It’s abundantly clear from our scriptures. The arguments don’t make a difference because the question is: Am I able to have compassion…
Read More
…state that those who meet the military’s physical fitness requirements are welcome to serve, regardless of gender identity: https://twitter.com/NavalInstitute/status/890208254869078017 As with most of Trump’s regressive policy suggestions on “culture war” issues, Mike Pence and his allies have been pushing for this Foreign Policy reports that the Vice President has been “working quietly” to roll back the Department of Defense’s landmark policy all…
Read More
…I, as a historian, am reasonably well-informed, and the opportunity was a welcome interruption from the incessant bombardment of election propaganda and the absurd claims so-called Christian politicians were then making. Once again, in the U.S. election campaign, our evangelicals—including among them many of “my” Baptists—were promoting a slew of “social issues,” but precious little “gospel.” Self-proclaimed and media-designated evangelicals…
Read More…f the children they are raising together. Congratulations, North Carolina. Welcome to the 16th century. Take voter Joe Easterling’s twisted and tortured logic for voting in support of the amendment: “I know that some people may argue that the Bible may not necessarily be applicable, or it should not be applicable, on such policy matters. But even looking at nature itself, procreation is impossible without a man and a woman. And because of those th…
Read More
…ork that I was doing over the course of the past 4 or 5 years or so was to promote the agenda that marriage is the union of a man and a woman only, and that anything contrary to that definition was invalid, basically. And more so over the course of the past year or so, I was working directly with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in promoting this agenda, and specifically the way that I opted to do that was by organizing a summer bus to…
Read More
…racial American president of Kenyan descendant giving a hearty White House welcome to a wise – and unmarried — Latina recently confirmed to one of the most powerful positions in the country. For many conservative and fundamentalist Christians, these types of images quite literally betoken a forsaking of the nation’s Anglo-centric, patriarchal heritage, and in this view we will – we must – as that Pennsylvania protester put it, be judged. Another w…
Read More
…that should be exclusive to white people,” says Jones. “Though everyone is welcome, I made this space and this practice for women like myself. I’ve always wanted to bring women of color to the mat. I’ve had people who didn’t practice before but are now dedicated yogis, and that’s always rewarding.” In addition to trap yoga, Jones also created TwerkAsana, a form of dance yoga that combines traditional poses with rhythmic gyrating. “We’re still hold…
Read More
…rump and his team in January. “Look, Christianity is not all about being a welcome mat which people can just stomp their feet on.” While Perkins has expressed interest in using his new position as an opportunity to support “religious freedom and the defense of religious minorities,” he might find that the USCIRF actually doesn’t require a significant change in focus from his own preoccupations with Christians’ rights. The USCIRF dates back to 1998…
Read More