Religion Dispatches
…blical Instructors changed its name to the American Academy of Religion; a sign that what James had started was beginning to take hold. In our time, the failure to bracket might not lead to Christian bigotry in our understanding of religion. But it could lead to a secularist prejudice just as toxic. If the early investigators of world religions believed them to be lesser forms of Christian truth, then our own postmodern investigations might just a…
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…ly meeting at six, many of the participants had decamped to Starbucks to design flyers to spread the word. They left the poster board that listed goals, handwritten contributions of anyone who wanted to chime in, under a tree in the square (see image above). Some goals were appropriately wonky for DC (“reinstate Glass-Steagall”); others were overbroad and silly (“abolish capitalism + the state”); others were born of frustration (“get jobs for educ…
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…Living. In addition, Sieradski is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and designer whose work explores themes of post-normative Jewish cultural expression. I see from the Facebook page you put up for the Kol Nidre minyan at Occupy Wall Street that you already have more than enough people for minyan. To your knowledge, is this the very first Kol Nidre service in the history of the world that takes place in solidarity with a protest against economic…
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…nes of rationality. For you (his brother), however, it is precisely that—a sign of irrationality. The two brothers inhabit two different worlds: in one world gods, angels, and miracles exist; in the other they don’t. So, if the two brothers talk about God, they talk about two fundamentally different things: Jimmy talks about God like he talks about his brother; his brother, on the other hand, talks about God like he talks about Dr. Jekyll or Hamle…
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…Dolan joined a coterie of evangelical and fundamentalist church leaders in signing the open letter “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together.” It was latest epistle in the growing canon of hierarchical statements aimed at gaining exemptions from federal and state laws that protect the rights of same-sex couples. But as the church leaders fortify their culture-war defenses [see here for some of RD’s recent cover…
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…and even a university official giving a speech. The unnamed hospital has a sign that says “Hospital.” But it isn’t really universal, is it? It depicts what abortion would be like if women were all beautiful, tragic figures, living in a world run by men who treated them with, not respect, but a kind of indulgent kindness. Well, okay. In the real world of policy, poverty, pregnancy complications, and domestic violence are often important factors too…
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…he bill, helping organize letter and petition drives which garnered 40,000 signatures calling for the veto. At a rally Wednesday night at the Utah state capital, Hilary Brown, a Utah Mormon, carried a picture of the Virgin Mary with the caption: “Abstinence. Not Entirely Effective. Knowledge = Power. Veto.” Meredith Hudson LeSueur, a Utah Mormon and mother of two, converted Brown’s sign into an image that went viral on the internet. Other Mormon m…
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…look at those people who are unaffiliated and I say, ‘Wow, that to me is a sign of the transformation that we’re going through. More and more people understand that we’re moving into a new place and are willing to take the risk, freeing themselves up and exploring their spirituality in different ways.’ I think eventually a large number of those people will re-affiliate in some way, shape, or form—but when they do, the actual institutions of religi…
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…n, and Christ is going to rule it. No doubt Netanyahu wants someone more pliable in the White House, and he’s got friends here who want to help him do it. After the Israeli leader met with the American president, Hagee’s organization, Christians United for Israel, emailed members urging them to sign a letter of support to Netanyahu. “Next week, we’re flying to Jerusalem to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. . . . When we present this letter, we w…
Read More…tal bonds of others” which Gingrich, Cain, Romney and Ron Paul declined to sign, but which Bachmann and Perry joined Santorum in signing. Cass says that Santorum “courageously put his name to some very bold, very Judeo-Christian, and extremely politically-incorrect statements about marriage and sexuality.” (Which, you know, is a euphemism for conspiratorial, fact-free claptrap.) So there you have it. Santorum should be president because he “recogn…
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