Religion Dispatches
…ing their own food and learning to live “off the grid” a bit more. I don’t buy that it’s because the economy may collapse so completely that we won’t even be able to get bread at the supermarket. I think it’s because, in our online age, people want to be connected to stuff, to “real” things like soil and sweat and fruit. And I think that’s part of what’s behind the OWS protests. Their rhetoric is sometimes anti-capitalist. But it’s never anti-Ste…
Read More…one is fighting for their right to never worry about finding enough money to buy a gift for a same-sex wedding. That vast money machine must work quickly, however, or there will be a lot of June marriages in the State of Washington. For the moment though, marriage equality supporters are glowing over the news that their state joins six others, and Washington, D.C. in recognizing same-sex couples. “No matter what the future holds, nothing will take t…
Read More…h his advisors proclaiming confidence in their deep pockets and ability to buy airtime, even though the campaign’s ground game is not as strong as it may seem. That ground-level weakness reflects the foundational flaw of the Romney campaign. Romney banked on the idea that conservative Christian voters would come around—with enough time, good will, and hard work. With just enough walk-shoveling. That was always a risky bet for a wonky Yankee Mormon…
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…g in an investigation by the administration and its offering him a ‘tenure buy out,’ which he declined. We understand, further, that on November 16, four months after the July 15 notification, the chair of the Faculty Dismissal Committee notified Professor Ellis that the administration was seeking his dismissal.” Ellis’ lawyer declined to discuss the nature of the complaint, but he did note that the female faculty member who filed it was “a former…
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…m for sane positions on some matters could prompt less discerning folks to buy into the whole package. Nor am I asking us to imagine that because we all fall short of God’s glory we cannot make distinctions between the merely flawed (Anthony Weiner, say), the more deeply flawed (Paul), and the truly fallen (Hitler): those who actively pursue evil and who must accordingly be stopped cold. But really, are we incapable of even hearing Paul on the so…
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…that Paulist Press, your publisher, provided an opportunity for readers to buy copies for the US Catholic bishops. Do you expect that they’ll read the book? Phyllis Zagano (PZ): I think they will. My own bishop asked for a copy, as did two US cardinals. There is a huge groundswell of support on this issue. For example, the Cleveland-based group FutureChurch has been running a postcard campaign for a year or so, and through FutureChurch thousands o…
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…Christmas cascading laundry list here, or this essay will never end.) The numbers tell the story. The academic study of religion has become an industry. So has the church. No matter how badly clergy want their lives to be “a calling,” they are actually jobs for which they are paid and receive medical coverage, retirement plans, and financial security (more or less). It is the way of the market. Why are they playing “Silver Bells” when I step into…
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…s a line pretending it’s a circle. The Occupy movement, of course, doesn’t buy it. If anything, it accuses Wall Street too much of being a line, as if it’s a huge conspiracy in charge of everything, which it isn’t. But in opposition to all things hierarchical, masculine, and mean, #occupy has gone all the way to the other extreme. First, it has protested against any linear, hierarchical apportionment of power. At the extreme end, this leads to soc…
Read More…immigration reform: Hispanics will drive minority growth above all. Their numbers will triple to 133 million by 2050 from 47 million today, while the number of non-Hispanic whites will remain essentially flat. Hispanics will double as a percentage of the population from 15 percent to 30 percent. The population of Asian Americans will also come close to doubling, going from 5 percent to 9 percent. The number of blacks, however, will grow only from…
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…rtheless put the number at roughly 338,000. I am willing to work with this number until a better one comes along. Of this number, roughly 8,000 congregations claim upwards of 1,000 members; most are smaller, indeed most are much smaller. My concept is this: I think we can create a Christian Honor Corps (CHC) of perhaps 10,000 persons. Persons like myself who take our responsibility to monitor Christian extremist thought seriously and who are willi…
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