Religion Dispatches
…istian and Lutheran but at the cost of true discipleship. The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap…We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition…Was there ever a more terrible and disastrous instance of Christianizing the world than this? It’s regrettable, I think, that “cheap grace” has turned into a kind of meme that Rod Dreher can toss into his deba…
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…0 do. Furthermore, if evangelical stronghold Liberty University is any indication, Trump can count on college-educated young evangelicals on November 8th as well. Since president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, Jr., endorsed him and welcomed him on campus, Trump has been inextricably linked to the Christian school, an association that its student body has been slow to cast off. With the discovery of the Trump tapes, the sound of a swirling t…
Read More…xactly to yourself, but to support the clergy, building maintenance, child care, general administration, etc, with only a fairly small percentage (from <1% to 10%) going to charity and other external efforts. (And whether or not evangelizing can be described as charity or generosity is a debate for another time.) As Gary Moore, past board president of two churches put it “we spent more of our general budget on lawn care than true benevolences.” So…
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…for local residents who desperately need them. As a faith leader in an African-American congregation with a social gospel history, Jones was deeply involved in that struggle, and it was through that work in DC—a long way, both literally and metaphorically, from Bentonville—that he was connected with OUR Wal-Mart and their campaign for Wal-Mart workers. For him it was an easy decision to get involved and to travel the country, organizing with the w…
Read More…sages who gave their lives to allow religion to remain upon the lowly American soil, and for the sake of their merit, preserve the residence, do so for your love of those who came from the dust. Please, our Father of Mercy, do not give the aggressor the portion that you have acquired and that you have freed from slavery with your great strength. And we know also, we know that we have no strength other than our mouths, and if we have brought on a…
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…als in order to get the blessings. I know that will seem distasteful and a caricature to some, but these events are well-attended, and at a hundred bucks a person, revenues from book and DVD sales. Conferences and meetings like Lou Engles’ The Call are not just prayer meetings, they are Christian marketplaces, with all sorts of spiritual wares being sold. As to the political interaction, all of these groups know they don’t have the numbers alone t…
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…35-year-old woman, Ashli Babbitt, had flown to Washington from her home in San Diego at the behest of Donald Trump who urged his supporters to interfere with the electoral vote tally. She had served for twelve years, including being a security guard for US Air Force bases, and had risen to the rank of Senior Airman. Her husband, who remained in San Diego, described her as an enthusiastic supporter of the President, but not emotionally unstable. Li…
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…ense as a way of distinguishing The Episcopal Church on the religious landscape from the evangelical Right and its culture wars against gay marriage and transgender rights, among other conservative bugaboos. Disaffected with the latter? The Episcopal Church welcomes you. Here’s the problem. This brand image is at odds with the fact that LGBTQ+ Episcopalians experience sexual victimization in Episcopal spaces at consistently higher rates than their…
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…ports the results to the bishop, who might consult other prelates or the local Cardinal, or “just ask around,” and then makes the call about an apparition’s authenticity. “Basically,” admitted the diocese’s representative, they usually ignore the whole thing. “Let it be,” he added, with no apparent irony. By comparison, bishops who enthusiastically support Marian apparitions or manifestations these days, like the former Bishop of Civitavecchia nea…
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…ce before the baby awakens. The festival begins. It’s one of those perfect San Francisco days, warm enough to enjoy the perpetual breeze. The band plays just beyond the walls of our roof deck, and soap bubbles float up close enough to pop from the crowded street below. All afternoon, friends join us. Music and sunlight stream in to the kitchen through the open glass doors. We eat dark strawberries picked the day before, drink homemade lemonade, an…
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