Religion Dispatches
…ing their own food and learning to live “off the grid” a bit more. I don’t buy that it’s because the economy may collapse so completely that we won’t even be able to get bread at the supermarket. I think it’s because, in our online age, people want to be connected to stuff, to “real” things like soil and sweat and fruit. And I think that’s part of what’s behind the OWS protests. Their rhetoric is sometimes anti-capitalist. But it’s never anti-Ste…
Read More…Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. As to the big moral question here—can I buy Thin Mints?, the archbishop has treated the question with all the theological seriousness it deserves: Each person must act in accord with their conscience. It is also our duty to form our consciences and learn the issues. Carlson has disbanded the Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts and replaced it with a Catholic Committee for Girls Formation, which will soon, undoubted…
Read More…), and frighteningly a full 10 percent of mainline Protestants continue to buy the lie about Obama’s religion. Seeing President Obama go to a Christian church each week could put some minds at ease about his true religious preference, or, knowing the right wing, could actually pour more gas on the fire and leave Obama open to charges of “faking it” to fool us into believing he’s a Christian and not a secret Muslim plotting the overthrow of democra…
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…Reformation also reimagined a rowdy and robust sense of grace. You didn’t buy your salvation—you received it by grace, through faith. You had a slogan: sola gratia. From God, you don’t get what you might deserve—you get what you don’t deserve and can’t possibly purchase. The Church, argued the reformers, had turned Christianity into a bunch of rules and regulations, rights and wrongs. And it had institutionalized the Holier Spirits. Like the Jesu…
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…hyped than Halloween and “the Holidays.” It doesn’t really demand that you buy gifts for anyone or send cards—unless you want to. For people with small children, it’s a chance to enjoy a holiday which has remained strictly for children in its childish ways. There are no embarrassing costumes or horrifying office parties. Adults with no children may not even celebrate at all. What does Easter even mean? Apparently the English term for the season h…
Read More…. Let me attempt to re-cap: 1. The AMC had a series of op-eds and a big ad buy. 2. The way the op-eds and website were argued implied that the AMC were good Muslims and the rest of the community was bad because of certain markers defined by these pieces. 3. The logical conclusion of such a construction is that there is a power-play involved. You will note that I never, in my piece, make categorical accusations. I cannot speak to the intentionality…
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…ow-income and minority people access to housing, rich white people can now buy homes costing up to $730,000 with FHA backing. Barney Frank, a Democrat, wants to raise the allowable amount to $840,000—and make it permanent. In vulture-like fashion, members of the American overclass have also begun taking advantage of the extreme distress of Loser America—buying up the land and buildings and businesses of those who aren’t making it, imposing pay cut…
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…o understand what kinds of people make up these congregations, and in what numbers. White middle class congregations with sprawling campuses and professional ministerial, administrative, and social programs staff are not the norm. In many urban neighborhoods or among immigrant religious groups, the landscape looks quite different—in fact, the average congregation in the U.S. is about 100 members. USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture develo…
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…people who fall between mostly conservative and mostly liberal—you have to buy his new book to get all of those details. It would be interesting to see how those 32 percent compare in faith matters with the 51 percent who consider themselves centrists. But that’s not the point of this press release. Instead, Barna’s content to present misleading numbers that do nothing but continue the assault on the “liberal” label—painting us as godless, unchurc…
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…d race-making, offering inclusion to non-White actors who enthusiastically buy into or promote these moral panics. This evolving politics of race within the far-right has converged with the growing maturity of the Indian-American community, allowing Ramaswamy to ride the wave of an unprecedented alignment between Hindu supremacist and White supremacist politics. After all, while Indian-Americans have often been lured by proximity to Whiteness and…
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