Religion Dispatches
…ucted song when he heard one, and a kindred rebel soul. As Haggard’s music sank in over the years, I learned too about being unapologetic for a humble background, or an unpopular opinion. He made it possible to embrace the artist-as-crank, and for that I will always be grateful. Everybody talks about Haggard’s integrity. He called it like he saw it—even when he later came to regret it, as with 1969’s anti-hippie anthem, “Okie From Muskogee,” a son…
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…million strong. The End of the World as We Know It Pastor John Hagee, the San Antonio-based preacher who presides over a multimillion dollar ministry, has been cooling his heels since taking a drubbing from the mainstream press last year after saying Jews had caused the Holocaust. “The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching,” Hagee wrote in his 2006 book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. “Just before us is a nuclear cou…
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…n Bailout! Advocacy Campaign Marjorie Dannenfelser, the President of the Susan B. Anthony List, recently announced plans for the Stop the Abortion Bailout! advocacy campaign, which according to the group’s press release, aims to convince the Senate to preserve “federal abortion funding restrictions.” The campaign intends “to secure the 41 votes necessary to sustain a filibuster against measures promoting federal taxpayer funding of abortion.” The…
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…ents raise their hands and come out during that class session.” Of course, Santa Clara may be an exception to what is typically a stricter rule. The Bishop of San Jose, Patrick McGrath, puts effort into maintaining a collegial relationship to the religious studies faculty. The faculty is equally respectful of McGrath’s position as leader of the diocese. “It’s not that we’re not going to raise challenging issues,” said Crowley, who previously serve…
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…ite a civil lawsuit that was filed against him in 2002. And last year, the San Antonio (TX) Express News reported that Miller “was forced to resign two years ago after a (credible) claim that he sexually abused (a St. Louis teenager), but was sent to his superiors to live and work for the church in Rome. SNAP, and now Dawkins, et al are frequently criticized as “too angry” or “too radical.” Their insistence that the Catholic Church and its leaders…
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…ian homeschooling movement, as well as Doug Phillips’ Vision Forum and the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF), it was unclear whether he was promoting their views. In the weeks leading up to the release of Monumental, Cameron made numerous appearances ranging from CNN, to CPAC, to interviews with religious-right leaders where he embraced popularized versions of the Reconstructionist framework. On David Barton’s Wallbuilders L…
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…ica is a homogeneous entity. In reality, however, Africa is made up of thousands of ethnic groups with rich and diverse cultures and sexualities. As appealing as the notion of African culture may be to some people, no such thing exists. Moreover, even if we wanted to imagine an authentic African culture, like all others, it would not be static. African history is replete with examples of both erotic and nonerotic same-sex relationships. For exampl…
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…ll, a transgender woman and a recently ordained deacon from the Diocese of San Joaquin who is featured in the film puts it, “There comes a time in history when you’re called to make things happen. It’s not a matter of generating controversy. It’s a matter of all of us being fully who we are. It’s just that simple. Now is the time to act on that in the Church—to make a serious attempt to imitate Christ.” If the Episcopal Church decides to clearly a…
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…nti-Islamic sentiment and rhetoric in the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, especially when polls have shown that a substantial majority of evangelicals have negative perceptions of Islam. It also demonstrates a deeper problem. The decision by Wheaton strikes me as part of a larger trend among evangelicals to isolate a person’s beliefs from other social, political, and cultural practices. Last month the National Association of Evang…
Read More…reat of terrorism. The lead news stories all these last ten days have been San Bernardino or Chicago or the French election, moving to the right in Islamophobia. What if good people and decent governments worldwide commit to less than 2 degrees Celsius as a goal and find themselves spending all their money and energy on a security state, which would shut down the very movements that brought the world to a good goal? We can’t lose our streets right…
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