Religion Dispatches
…own spiritual/cultural values. Liberals see porous borders as a symbol of freedom: free movement, free choice, and the free creativity generated by the intermingling of peoples. To conservatives, the very presence of so many Illegal “aliens” proves that the borders they once imagined as the key to a safe, orderly life have long been crumbling around them. To give undocumented people legal status would be further proof that the nation’s walls and…
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…icking on the varied visages and scenarios lead to words of encouragement, free downloads of books like Your Brain on Porn and More Than Single, and free training sessions. Though their looks differ, each man appears confident and contemplative, with a sense of purpose. Many stare straight into the camera or are captured in chiseled or bearded profile. No one on the women’s site is as fleshed out. It has fewer images of actual women, and all of th…
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…aeli scholars said that, in this case, they cared less or not at all about freedom of speech. Former SBL President Athalya Brenner wrote that: “At this time I’m less concerned than usual about freedom of expression, future job prospects of younger colleagues, and so on..[F]reedom of verbal expression does not and should not extend to hate speech and violence. Out of self defense, this is not the company i want to keep.” Noam, the aforementioned Ta…
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…o believe differently from the rich and the powerful is a prerequisite for free speech and a free press, the other two elements of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.” How does your report fit into today’s political landscape? Over the years, the Christian Right has evolved, shaping events and not merely reacting to them. Conservatives have consistently responded to changing social roles and increasing efforts at equality for the historica…
Read More…ft: evangelical activists do not want to hear that the White House will be free of religious influence; in fact, a White House free of religious influence (conservative religious influence, that is) is something to be reviled, indeed provoking reverse peristalsis. Hence the new ecumenism found in manifestos like the Manhattan Declaration, which appears as a blueprint for the “religious freedom” wars, and in the opposition to the HHS contraception…
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…ory of recognizing that the state can use its power to take away religious freedom.” The kind of religious freedom the panelists discussed, of course, isn’t the Orwellian distortion posed by the Christian Right in both its Catholic and evangelical wings, in which religious freedom is invoked in order to justify the oppression of others, but the liberatory idea of religious freedom for all, including the non-religious, that traditional Baptists hav…
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…s to do if he finds out his prayer mat was woven by a gay weaver,” reports Free Malaysia Today. If so, Ismail asks, “are his prayer invalid?” Perkasa Islamic affairs bureau head Amini Amir Abdullah had also urged Putrajaya to revoke business licenses of such companies. Pointing out that Apple CEO Tim Cook is openly gay besides supporting LGBT rights, Tawfik questioned if this meant all Muslims in Malaysia should also give up their iPhones and iPad…
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…ponents to heartily resist or embrace our influence and vice-versa. We are free to the extent that we live in a trustworthy world. The new birth of freedom will grow as we can come see most of our opponents as men and women who, like us, dare to die for the future benefit of all—and who, like us, will rely on patient persuasion, not disdainful coercion to accomplish the good they desire. We cannot say with any degree of confidence what motivates t…
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…ll as the movie by the same name, which is about Chris McCandless, a young free-spirit who spent time in Slab City. McCandless eventually starved to death in an abandoned bus in Alaska. Knight knew McCandless and he portrays himself in the movie. Today, he is 79, still living on the outskirts of Slab City, hosting tours and providing his testimony for anyone who cares to listen. I think the fact that his message sounds so refreshing illustrates ho…
Read More…eless fire. This is important because in Islamic cosmology, Angels have no free will: they can only obey Allah. The jinn, like the human creatures, do have free will and can disobey. This is different from the version of this story in Genesis, where there was “war in heaven” and the war was against God. We don’t have a God in such compromising positions. In the Qur’anic story, Satan disobeys and still knows that God is one. Think about that. It wa…
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