Religion Dispatches
…ed by the political system and political parties.” Will that be part of the Democratic Party’s “faith outreach?” So far “faith” for the Democrats has cast a pretty narrow net that doesn’t encompass the “people of faith” who support reproductive rights and would support a repeal of Hyde….
Read More…stations, employs about 100 at its home-base, has fully embraced the Internet, and runs one of the most sophisticated communications networks amongst the Christian right organizations. The organization also operates the Center for Law & Policy, a conservative legal operation, American Family Radio, American Family News Network’s OneNewsNow (formerly Agape Press), and a legislative action arm, AFA Action. The re-birth of anti-same-sex marriage ini…
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…oney. Lots of money. According toBritish journalist Greg Palast, Pat has a net worth estimated at between $200 million and $1 billion, a fortunate he amassed through moneymaking ventures including African gold and diamond mines, the Kalo-Vita vitamin pyramid scheme, the Bank of Scotland, the Family Channel, and the Ice Capades, as well as Age-Defying shakes, antioxidants, and protein pancakes. So is Pat guilty of not practicing what he preaches? A…
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…mous (and tax-exempt) conglomerate comprised of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Regent University (of which the governor-elect of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, is a graduate), the American Center for Law and Justice (whose president, Jay Sekulow, is considered “the leading Supreme Court advocate of the Christian right”), and Robertson’s “humanitarian” arm, Operation Blessing (which has been involved in highly questionable—but lucrative—relationship…
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…n as at best useless and at worst deadly. One of the arguments Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens make, for instance, is that one need not be religious to be a moral person. They like to point to the evolutionary origins of our moral sense—or as Dawkins puts it: “the lust to be good”—in order to claim that morality precedes religion and does not require it. While plausible, this argument does not prove that religion has no effect on morality. In fact,…
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…other hand, really, really dislike same-sex marriage, as do evangelical members of the Churches of Christ or Disciples of Christ. Interestingly enough, Orthodox Christians—a tradition hardly known for its liberalism—hover around Hindus, both in size and net approval. My unscientific guess? We’ll probably see both pros and cons continue to move in their respective directions, with precious little left in the middle. And of course, that big blue bal…
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…ect the impulse to be almost as spontaneous, say, as logging onto the Internet. That’s what I intend to do as soon as I’ve formed some of my own thoughts on this. It’s possible I will discover that there is also a heated discussion on whether a person ought to form his or her own thoughts before logging onto the Internet, but I need to digest one controversy at a time. My first thought here and the easiest to dispense with is that some might balk…
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…l.” Additionally, the report said, “There is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.” At its most simplistic, Shaman says that “dumping more selective absorbing gases (greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere produces a radiative imbalance that increase the energy and temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, land, and oceans. We can measure the CO₂ increase by infrared spectroscopy from satellite…
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…ly, as Vyckie Garrison noted, her Quiverfull convictions led her to desire total reliance on, and trust in, God, neglecting her own instincts and health in favor of obedience and submission. “Our deeply beloved belief system denied us an important safety net,” she wrote to Carri Chmielewski, “that of our own feelings. When our bodies and minds screamed out, ‘Something is wrong!’ our faith calmed us down.” And in some cases, that calm, the “peace t…
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…America when the church would establish a kind of Christian social safety net where motherhood was not only supported but also exalted as part of God’s plan for the universe.” The article makes only one brief mention of the pervasive abuse that has been, and still is, associated with such institutions, downplaying it as something that “sometimes” happened. In many American states, institutions like this can use their Christian affiliation as a ge…
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