Religion Dispatches
…ancestry generations ago, a Jewish spouse, Jewish friends etc. In terms of numbers, Jews by religion or no religion make up 2.2% of the U.S. population, but if you add “People with a Jewish affinity” it rises to 2.7%, so that this category of people who are not considered Jews by the Jewish community but identify as Jews is nearly 25% of the Jews by religion or no religion, those we conventionally call “Jews.” The fact that there are so many Ameri…
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…nted for 60% of employment in 1979 accounted for only 46% by 2012; and the number of persons not in the labor force is growing. While some are getting richer, the numbers tell us, middle income earners are hobbled by shrinking purchasing power, disappearing job opportunities, and increasingly out-of-reach education. This is problem enough for the many who work hard and can’t figure out why they’re “losing ground,” as Pew wrote. Add to that fears o…
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…the impact it is having on the Indian social fabric. It’s a conversation Uganda and a number of African nations have not had—which is having devastating consequences for the their LGBT communities. As scholar and social activist Jim Perkinson has reminded us, countries such as India are only a microcosm of the worldwide impact of missionary activity. “The effect on native people of predatory proselytization is typically cultural alienation, a gro…
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…administration and the mandate. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of white Catholics who said the Obama administration was “unfriendly to religion” more than doubled from 17 percent to 36 percent between 2009 and 2014. And starting around 2012, white Catholics broke for the GOP by historic margins. It’s also worth noting, as Michael Sean Winters has, that this occurred around the time the administrative staff of the bishops’ confer…
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…inate the search results and stake out authoritative-sounding positions, regardless of their influence offline. You can see this, for example, in the world of online Judaica, where two organizations—Aish HaTorah and, especially, the Chabad Lubavitch movement—have developed enormous, accessible websites offering answers on everything from gefilte fish recipes to evolution. In the context of American Judaism, both organizations are unusual: Chabad i…
Read More…017, Lokodo ordered police to shut down all Pride events, stating that “No gay gathering and promotion can be allowed in Uganda,” media reports said. Austria: Court sets schedule for marriage equality The Constitutional Court ruled that a ban on same-sex couples marrying was unlawful discrimination, ordering that marriage equality be in place by the end of 2018. Botswana: Court tells government to allow trans woman to change legal gender A court o…
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…, and right here in our backyard was a source to meet that need,” he says. Gather the Children Karen Tipps, full-time caretaker at the shrine, adds: “A lot of people say well, why do you think it happened now? Well, every apparition is meant for its certain time in history.” According to the story, the Holy Mother asked Brise to “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” The message about educati…
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…sent Grover Cleveland back to the White House in 1892. Suddenly in charge again after running against the tariff and the Silver Act, they, like today’s GOP, were in the hook to make good on their promises of returning America to better, simpler days without government interference. Then, the worst depression of the nineteenth century, the Panic of 1893, hit. The Democrats put all their efforts into repealing the Silver Act, which it blamed for the…
Read More…k noted that the three who died suffered from heat related illnesses and organ failure due both to the extreme temperature and Ray’s failure to respond to those who became concerned about those who had passed out or were suffering obvious stress. Just after the tragedy Melinda Martin, a former employee of Ray’s, told ABC news that the scene was so chaotic that EMT’s thought at first they had arrived at a more ominous event. “There was vomiting, yo…
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…ian American) has advocated for Republicans to reach out to Muslim voters. Gaffney, a former Reagan Administration appointee, has become a fixture at many conservative events, despite his confrontation with CPAC’s organizers. Although he was banned as a speaker, he did make an appearance in the audience of “The Shari’ah Challenge to the West” panel. Indeed, the views of the panelists were virtually indistinguishable from Gaffney’s. Moderated by Cl…
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