Religion Dispatches
…on, ran an entire branded campaign around #crossequalslove. Other churches used Easter as a verb (perhaps in reference to the final stanza of this Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, or simply because our culture verbs almost everything online). “#EasterWithUs,” requested North Point Ministries, also in the Atlanta area. Gateway Church, in Texas, urged parishioners to post a selfie of themselves with someone they’d brought to church, as part of the #Easte…
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…oseph or an analysis of both affect and argument in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, on the St. Louis University campus. Such juxtaposition points to the ultimate use of the Arch City Religion Project as, itself, a kind of lens, a tool through which citizens—scholars and students as well as congregants, laypeople, policy makers, even parade-goers—can see the familiar in a new light. Drawing attention to that which is so…
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…noticed that I haven’t used the word “hate” yet. In fact, the only time I use “hate” is in this paragraph. That’s because the “hate” framework allows us to hide systemic oppression behind the inscrutable actions of individuals, of so-called “lone wolves.” It’s as inaccurate to use a framework of “hate” to describe a single person’s actions as it is to use a framework of “environmental friendliness” to describe a single person’s actions. Both fram…
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…of trans and non-binary life. The big danger is that this document will be used to bolster oppression. For example, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops can use it to increase pressure on Catholic hospitals to deny gender affirming medical care. This shorthand gets turned into hospital policies that allow and compel staff to discriminate. This threat alone is enough to make strong critique of the papally-approved document necessary. The medical i…
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…nd-class status as an optional health care service that employers could refuse to provide. They were in effect trying to use the law to prevent both Catholics (who, with some 98 percent using contraceptives in their lifetime, had largely rejected the Vatican’s prohibition of contraception) and non-Catholics from accessing contraception through employer-based health plans. Their evolving argument was dealt a huge setback, however, when in 2001 the…
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…e church down the street (while the rest of the family “overreacts” at her use—or misuse—of the word). Madea’s home and neighborhood serve as an introduction to black culture for the Needleman family, who enter a “museum for blackness” when they arrive at Madea’s house and experience the discomfort of plastic coverings on the sofa, or the inability to sit on the porch after certain hours. Perry’s exhibitions are not much fun, to say the least, whe…
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…tance of context, in practice its vague language and large net has been misused to target pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses and in legislation. For example, IHRA’s concern about criticizing Israel by a “double standard” has often been interpreted to mean that anyone who protests Israeli human rights violations without equal attention to other countries has a “double standard” and is therefore presumed guilty of antisemitism. It opens up…
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…houses (non-residential chapters) in many large cities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. They are often happy to visit classrooms, and they will come in habit to discuss their own perspectives on the order. Because they’re a non-profit organization that gives all of its monies back to the community, some will ask only for the cost of travel; honoraria generally go to the Sister’s house rather than to the individual member….
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…merican people will use their right to vote to make changes in the White House and on Capitol Hill because people get the president (and congressmen) they deserve. 40 acres and a mule? Shout outs from ancestors? A new day is on the way? Walking on water? Getting crunk in the White House? Does anybody else recognize something noticeably disconnected about these electronic messages? I certainly did. In the first place there was pride, hope, exciteme…
Read More…his, of course, but just predicting how it will likely play out. While the use of ex-gay therapy has been condemned and discredited by medical and psychological professional associations, it is actually quite common for conservative evangelicals to endorse and promote it. Remember, after all, that while campaigning in 2008, President Obama ran into a little trouble for campaigning with the singer Donnie McClurkin, who has claimed that “God deliver…
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