Religion Dispatches
…taken in the “Second Middle Passage” from the eastern seaboard to the Deep South during the very years that the Second Great Awakening proclaimed spiritual freedom for all. Anglo-Americans created the evangelical synthesis. They also fostered a racially exclusivist and religiously restrictive culture that limited the freedom of those defined outside the ranks of the free and the citizen. This remained true during the era when America’s God was a r…
Read More…y that allegedly depicts Jesus during a sex act. See for yourself here. In South Carolina a woman claims Jesus is depicted in her MRI. Mixing scripture reading and prayer with exercise may be the best way to get the elderly to work. President George W. Bush is reading a new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, according to Laura Bush. As the November elections get closer, more politicians are showing up at church. An Algerian court acquitted two Prot…
Read More…e flag and God), despite initial worries that the tea parties inadequately promoted the “life” issues. The problem with much of the reporting on a tea party-religious right alliance has focused on the turf battles between leaders, and disputes over whether to emphasize the social issues over economic ones at tea party events. Based on my own reporting, though, the absence of bloody fetus posters at tea party rallies says nothing about the interest…
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…global diversity,” deserving about the same amount of resources as Ancient South Asia or Chinese Religion in the Twelfth Century? Far from being embarrassed that Religious Studies is a good place to study how the history and current practice of Christianity shapes everyday American life, I maintain that this is a major reason the discipline has thrived—both in the past and present. In fact, the relatively “esoteric” parts of religious studies are…
Read More…urches, I several times heard him refer to himself as a “Bapti-costal” — a Southern Baptist with Pentecostal sensibilities. He positions himself with the Christian nation mythology, being the candidate of choice at the gatherings of Renewal Projects, which often featured Newt Gingrich’s “Rediscovering God In America” lectures. The Renewal Projects hosted “Pastors’ Policy Briefings,” and in Iowa, these gatherings were thought to be effective get-ou…
Read More…ack when the future president was still a community organizer on Chicago’s south side. In fact, I don’t think Obama is a sellout or a Wall-Street lapdog, as some people have suggested. I believe that he is a generally moderate-to-liberal technocrat who honestly believes that he can do right by both big money and the little folks. And therein lies the problem. When your vision of economic leadership involves buzzwords like “competitiveness” and “in…
Read More…, I dare say Jim Crow laws would still be on the books here in my state of South Carolina. There are simply some matters, like the rights of minorities, that cannot be put to a popular vote — though the rights of gays and lesbians seem to be put to the vote often these days. Not all religious folks were complaining about the ruling, however. Rev. Rob Hardies, one of the co-chairs of DC Clergy United for Marriage Equality, said he was “delighted” w…
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…g figure in the Jewish community than Richard Goldstone? When the esteemed South African judge issued his 2009 report alleging that Israel had committed human rights abuses during the 2008-2009 Gaza War (known as Operation Cast Lead), many in the Jewish community condemned him as a traitor. A synagogue sought to ban him from attending his own grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. On the other side, some skipped over the report’s criticisms of Hamas and the call…
Read More…ave historical and cultural links respectively, as well as West Africa and South Asia. These aren’t just ordinary organizations, either. There are TV stations, in several languages, private schools, journals and magazines, dialogue projects, and literary festivals. I met young Albanians and Macedonians studying Islamic sciences, between themselves fluent in Albanian, Turkish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and English; they’re in Istanbul for gene…
Read More…of the planet—you have to go to Moscow in the north, probably Dubai in the south, central Europe in the west and probably India in the east to get this kind of economic power. It doesn’t deserve to be second fiddle to anyone, and with Turkey’s rise, I can see it playing a global role, in the near future, commensurate with its historic one. At the moment I’m overlooking the last stop on the European rail network. From here, you can go all the way t…
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