Religion Dispatches
…non-Muslims in order to expand Muslim realms while observing humanitarian codes of conduct against civilians is more or less accepted as a given, even by many specialists of Islam. The proof-texts invoked in support of such a position are medieval Islamic legal texts, which frequently did list such a requirement as part of the duties of the Muslim ruler and established furthermore an elaborate code of conduct for initiating war. And this is where…
Read More…statistically significant effect” on charitable contributions in those zip codes after a scandal, and not only to Catholic-based charitable organizations. The researchers theorize that perhaps once a person stops attending church, the social pressure to be charitable declines. Interestingly, however, these same individuals mirror the statistical notion that even though an increasing number of Americans consider themselves religiously unaffiliated,…
Read More
…marked on his own countrymen’s past, “[O]ne has only to look at our former codes of punishments to understand… [that] Germans have employed fearful means to acquire a memory…” Having acquired their own memories, Nietzsche might suggest, the Germans seek to bring about the same in Greeks by inflicting pain. But did Germans acquire a memory after all? Many have noted the irony of Germany’s negotiating position, considering Greece’s forgiving of Germ…
Read More…nal issues, she tells us that grew up in a family where love was not given freely or unconditionally, with a hypercritical, withholding, unpredictable, at times vicious mother—alcoholic and suicidal. She adored her hard-drinking scientist father, following in his footsteps to become a scientist herself. Desperate to escape, she intellectualized her alienation, running into the arms of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Sartre and Camus, scientists and phil…
Read More…ties, barricading themselves within a bunker because they believed that barcodes on food packaging are Satanic. In a statement, Christian dairy tycoon Boyko-Veliky explained the crosses: Russian Milk is forced to place bar codes on its packaging, as without this, we will only be able to sell our goods at farms, not in stores. . . . By placing the cross on the bar code, we want to demonstrate our stance: We are with our Lord, Jesus Christ, and not…
Read More
…m the Rune Stone using such techniques as dowsing rods for divining hidden codes within the runes. Some of these new narratives describe large settlements of Christian Vikings who lived in Minnesota for centuries following Leif Eriksson’s arrival in Vinland. There is a ready market for such wild speculation on cable television, but Krueger notes that these tales of ancient European settlers effectively marginalize America’s actual original inhabit…
Read More
…the good of an ordered society. Others counter that sexuality needs to be freed from the repressive constraints of religion. Ironically, both opponents and supporters of LGBT equality believe in this supposedly uncrossable divide between religion and sexuality. Versions of this argument are so frequently repeated by media commentators, politicians, and activists that they have become common sense. This is not just about homosexuality. In reportin…
Read More
…minated, the rejected, and the vilified. Having spent decades opposing new freedoms for gays, Christians now claim that gays are somehow stripping freedoms from them. Given the history between these groups, this claim demonstrates an incalculable level of chutzpah. I suggested earlier that Craig’s reasoning might be instructive to those interested in the arguments that drive the debate over same-sex marriage. Having now worked through that reasoni…
Read More…tly gender-segregated customs of Mormonism are—like unwritten Sunday dress codes—traditional rather than doctrinal and human rather than inspired. It was also an opportunity to start a conversation about traditional gender inequalities in a community where feminism has been unnecessarily stigmatized as an excommunicable offense. (And for the record, it is not.) Because really, it’s not pants or the right to wear pants that tops the list of Mormon…
Read More…g for years requirements that he abide by basic building, fire, and zoning codes. So you go back to that Charisma story and the overblown rhetoric about religious persecution, and remind yourself not to take seriously the next thing you read or hear from the Rutherford Institute. And while you can’t be sure, you don’t recall reading that the heat and harsh conditions at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Maricopa County Tent City Jail had previously moved John…
Read More