Religion Dispatches
…ht. The bill will go into effect immediately and employees will be able to sign up for the benefits by next Spring. This news from Chattanooga is especially striking a few reasons. First, the city has come very far, very fast. Chattanooga does lean Democrat, in no small part because it’s 35% African-American. But as anyone familiar with Southern politics can tell you, a city of Southern Democrats is not necessarily a city of social liberals. And,…
Read More…has said that the legalization of gay marriage is a “dangerous apocalyptic sign.” This stance encouraged Orthodox Christians in Putin’s United Russia party to propose anti-gay legislative initiatives that crystallized into a law banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors.” Putin, a devout churchgoer, has publicly denounced “so-called tolerance, genderless and without issue.” Kuraev’s firing from the theological academy only…
Read More…atriarch Tep Vong, who is viewed as an extension of the ruling party, to resign if he failed to recover the urn. A prominent activist monk later called for the Minister of Cults and Religion to step down if he also couldn’t get the job done. In contemptuous remarks captured by reporters at the confrontation, Vong said it wasn’t his fault, and went on to blame the security guards who were arrested. He said the monks who demanded him to do more didn…
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…is time for someone else to take over. I applaud his move and read it as a sign of hope in a dreary ecclesial scene. Speculation about his health is rampant. As with many elders whose offspring plot to take away the car keys, I suspect there was some backdoor lobbying to make this retirement happen. But I dare to hope that it was at least in part the considered judgment of an octogenarian who saw his predecessor propped up long after his prime and…
Read More…igious exercise is not substantially burdened by the requirement that they sign the certification form expressing their religious objection to the contraceptive coverage in order to exempt themselves from the contraceptive-coverage provision. The government’s brief sums up the salient points on the purpose and operation of religious exemptions, and the operation of RFRA (emphasis added): When extending religious accommodations, the government mus…
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…mes’ Jim Hardley and Jason Horowitz report, some Catholics hope the change signals a future shift from recent appointments that disappointed many progressive Catholics, including the appointment of Salvatore J. Cordileone, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, as archbishop of San Francisco and Leonard Blair, who played a major role in the Vatican investigation of American nuns, as the archbishop of Hartford. Pope Francis was named Person of…
Read More…egically At least two gatherings in the past week focused on the strategic promotion of LGBT equality abroad. On Friday, December 6, in Washington, D.C., the Center for Transatlantic Relations, which is part of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, hosted a presentation called “LGBT Rights: A Geostrategic Issue for Democracies.” The panel, part of a series of discussions on the topic, featured Elizabe…
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…hment. Maybe the secular social-justice commitments of American Jews are a sign of Judaism’s success. So, most religious people are equally generous; they only give more than non-religious people because they give to religious organizations; and they, like the rest of us, give to overwhelmingly religious organizations. For better or for worse. Like this story? Your tax-deductible $5 or $10 will help us pay writers, coders, interns, and editors. An…
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…tionships between Messianic Jews and more conventional Semites. “This is a sign of growing inclusivity and a growing acceptance, in some Jewish quarters, of Messianic Jews.” Could that growing inclusivity be the end of American Jewry? Last time I checked, Jews weren’t defecting to Christianity en masse. And, as J.J. Goldberg points out over at the Forward, the Pew survey indicates that America’s Jewish population is growing. So what does this all…
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…the word of God with boldness. This shaking of the Spirit is not simply a sign of power, but of pleasure. God’s excitement is evident here. Here and now God’s people are one—calling on the faith and boldness of Jesus to do the divine will. Here and now the new order confronts the old order and God sees the unfolding of divine desire in and among God’s creatures. This is the Spirit’s quivering joy exposed in the impartation of holy power. Yet what…
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