Religion Dispatches
…e director of Truth Wins Out, that appeared in the Falls Church News-Press Online, Wasilla Bible Church “was caught promoting” the LWO conference through a Bible insert that read, “You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality.” “We appear wherever Focus on the Family spreads lies and fear,” Besen, said in a press release. “Love Won Out distorts gay life and conflates stere…
Read More…e Presidential Prayer Team. According to Charisma, particpants have joined online forums and “each morning, team members … are e-mailed a specific prayer topic that targets a vital aspect of the election. It includes a related Bible verse, inspirational photo and written prayer. Leaders of the initiative hope to join believers nationwide in prayer for both the next president and for specific political issues facing the United States. The prayer te…
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…I was inspired to write Bulletproof Faith by the readers of Whosoever, the online magazine for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christians that I founded in 1996. As soon as I put Whosoever on the Web, the hate mail began to pour in. People were offended that there was a magazine out there telling LGBT people not just that God loved them, but that God loved them just as they are—as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people because God h…
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…away with these things in the first place when you live with a very small number of people. 2) That ancient Israel was monotheistic from the get-go. I don’t think monotheism emerged until the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BCE—nearly half a millennium after King David and way, way after Moses and Abraham supposedly signed on to monotheism. 3) That Jesus said “Love your enemy” and espoused universal love. I think the emphasis on a love that c…
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…hey believe lies in store during the Obama administration, nevertheless, a number of groups took part in activities marking the anniversary, and others are planning a series of actions and longer-lasting campaigns. The Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person hosted a forum of original commentary from a group of pro-life scholars and public policy experts who addressed the question of whether the pro-life movement has “failed.” (All c…
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…ed from North America to Europe, South America, and the Philippines, met a number of politically powerful Republican politicians and conservative religious leaders, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Iran/Contra figure Oliver North, and then-Senator Rick Santorum. Religious leaders like Charles Stanley (a former distributor), Dr. Robert Schuller and the late Dr. D. James Kennedy of Florida’s Coral Ridge Ministries—a multimedia, m…
Read More…l find balanced and sober reviews of these books in a variety of print and online sources. (Good examples are Marilynne Robinson’s review of The God Delusion in Harper’s, William C. Placher’s Christian Century review of Hitchens’ contribution. Stanley Fish’s blogs in the New York Times on atheism are interesting.) Today’s Atheists: Yesterday’s Angst Among the many things associated with the progress of public atheism, “newness” still stands out: n…
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…tner come, or the recommendations for spanking and light bondage, etc., in online Christian advice sites like The Marriage Bed. Another big misconception is that the best way to resist conservatism is to expose conservative hypocrisy. One of the most important things I learned in researching evangelical sex advice and therapy culture (which is a multibillion dollar industry) is how crucial exhibitionist, preemptive confessionalism has become. Evan…
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…Blood by deliberately confusing fact and fiction. This was primarily done online, where Web sites such as TruBeverage.com were created, complete with product descriptions of various synthetic blood types. Vampire profiles began to appear on Myspace, Facebook, and livejournal complete with fake news and fake discussions on how Tru Blood would affect the vampire political structure. YouTube clips began to circulate in which actors in fangs snarled…
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…he name of the person who will sign the official certificate,” advises the online instructions for announcement submission, “For an interfaith event, please include the names and affiliations of any other officiants who will participate.” Religion here is a first-paragraph shibboleth, the entry code to the subsequent curriculum vitae. Over the course of the announcements, the so-called “Episcopacy” has become less Anglican and more ethnic. In 1997…
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