Religion Dispatches
…e the law, whereupon these aggrieved pastors would take their case all the way to the (presumably sympathetic) Supreme Court. The organizers are calling it “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” “For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church,” Alliance attorney Erik Stanley told the Washington Post. “It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It’s not for the government to mandate the role of…
Read More…ke a difference. We need to be a factor in this race, and this is the only way we can. For the next week, we want to see if we can get 1,000 Utah women to contribute a minimum of $25 online (the rules will actually “let” you contribute all the way up to $75,000 but we really just want to count you in at any level!) I invite you to pass this along to every Utah woman who can contribute $25… This is an investment that I’m asking you to make. This is…
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…sue” is a basic narrative that never changes. This is why Shakespeare is always on the cutting edge and always will be. At risk of being too cute I’ll add that life and the “big issues” really do boil down to sex, mom, and God. “Modernity” has changed nothing. We human animals seek out meaning that transcends the sum of our physical parts. That never changes. And we make the same mistakes in every age. What has changed is that the stakes have gott…
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…and something about how political polarization can hold in broadly similar ways across very different cultural contexts. The View from the Right One type of response came mainly from India. Here was a democracy attacked at its commercial heart in a vividly, cleverly brutal way, by men claiming to do so in the name of Islam. And if the world rallied in support of America then, it should do so for India now—if necessary, by supporting military actio…
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…ization of the conservative legal movement since the days of Nixon and the way that its view of executive power finally gives voice to its authoritarian impulses. During his presidency, Nixon had continuously tried to expand the power of his office. He was far from the first to do so—it’s not for nothing that historians refer to Lyndon B. Johnson’s time in office as an “imperial presidency,” the theoretical framework coined by historian Arthur M….
Read More…cal church is saying to gays and lesbians, “Yes, you may well be born this way – created this way by God – but you simply cannot live that way. You cannot practice that ‘behavior.’” In short, God has made some sort of genetic mistake and because of that you cannot pursue a relationship that might make you happier and healthier. Instead of being seen as human beings in search of the ultimate fulfillment that an intimate relationship with another hu…
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…ut that’s only a temporary matter of optics. SHARE will be back, and other ways of keeping America armed to the teeth will be introduced. No demonstration, no email petition, no call-in campaign to Congress will finally solve the problem of easy access to guns, because the political system is structured to prevent such a solution. The only way to change the depraved American situation will be to change its depraved political system, and that will…
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…interstates and airports — bully and terrorize the law-abiding.” “The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country, and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with a clenched fist of truth,” Loesch concludes. “I’m the National Rifle Association of America and I’m freedom’s safest place.” Holley gets the context of the video right, I think: If Loesch’s rhetoric is an attempt to draw battles lines and stoke outrage, she’s feeding…
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…exile of the 6th century BCE—nearly half a millennium after King David and way, way after Moses and Abraham supposedly signed on to monotheism. 3) That Jesus said “Love your enemy” and espoused universal love. I think the emphasis on a love that crosses ethnic bounds emerged after the crucifixion, especially through the ministry of Paul, and then later gospel writers attributed this idea to Jesus. And I think this very laudable doctrine flowed fro…
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…ding their policy concerns and pushing them to vote for McCain. It won’t always be this way. History is on the side of the “seekers.” Eventually they will dominate public life, including the political process. The “dwellers” sense that they are fighting a rear-guard action, which is why their counterattack is so ferocious. For now, though, the Obama campaign feels forced to play “me too,” trying mightily to convince the “dwellers” that their candi…
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