Religion Dispatches
…ses Goodall’s belief that expressions of awe by chimpanzees at a waterfall site “may resemble the emotions that led early humans to religion.” The debate over whether or not our animal neighbors can be “religious” is but one issue in the growing field of religion and animals. In the last decade, the field has also illuminated the significant roles played by religious traditions in our learning about and treatment of other living beings. The contem…
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…America today. The opposition against building an Islamic center near the site where the World Trade Center once stood, and the growing outcry around the country about the creation of other Muslim places to gather and worship, suggests that many Americans are not afraid to answer the question without hesitation. In the post-9/11 world we now live in, Islam poses the greatest threat to American lives and security; a nefarious, fanatical religion t…
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…emic experts), for example, wants to restore America, according to the Web site of his Massachusetts-based ministry, “to its Bible-based foundations through preaching, teaching, and writing on America’s Christian heritage and on Christian discipleship and revival.” He also believes that Hurricane Katrina, Watergate, and the Vietnam War are the result of divine wrath. As part of his curriculum review for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills pro…
Read More…outreach he did for Romney again. In other Romney-evangelical news, the website Evangelicals for Mitt is up and running again, maintained by conservative Christian lawyer David French (who recently joined the American Center for Law and Justice, which is run by Jay Sekulow, who also supported Romney in 2008), his wife Nancy, and Charles Mitchell. At the 2007 Values Voters Summit, Mitchell told me EFM represented evangelicals who were tired of the…
Read More…currently closed due to government seizure of assets, according to its web site. I visited the place a couple years ago, just after he was sent to jail, and his son Eric had taken over. It purports to teach creation science, but the place was so cheesy it reminded me a lot of those Jellystone KOA campgrounds with the plywood cutouts of dinosaurs. While I was there, I sat in with a group of little kids, who were shown a video defending the biblical…
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…y I cannot do that until the public and intellectuals alike stop offering up essentialist visions of cultural products like yoga. Resisting the siren call of orthodoxy to claim a site of origin or authenticity is dangerous—it destabilizes our own sense of authority—yet it holds the possibility of empowerment….
Read More…sus statement seriously. According to the Church of Jediism’s official Web site, Daniel (Master Morda Hehol) dedicated himself to the Jedi way in 2003, and started an actual ministry with his brother Barney in 2007. The group claims 30 members in the UK, but has links to similar organizations in New Zealand and the United States. The Darth Vader attack occurred while some of these members were filming a lightsaber battle in their backyard. Arwel W…
Read More…ltiplied, Rick Warren this morning issued a statement and video on his web site, calling on Ugandan pastors to oppose the law, and rebutting reports about his relationships with political and religious leaders in Uganda. Warren (like our own Candace Chellew-Hodge did in criticizing Warren’s silence) quotes Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Warren states: [I]t is my role to correct lies, errors…
Read More…n was akin to banning prayer. Guess what? The National Day of Prayer’s web site had this to say about it: The National Day of Prayer belongs to Americans. It is a tradition that dates back to 1775 and it is not for a Judge to take away. We the people called for the day of prayer and for 59 years we have practiced our freedom to gather and pray. This is an attack upon our religious freedoms and it is a sad day in America when an atheist in Wisconsi…
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…announced that he was again running for the Republican nomination. His Web site features a quote from James Dobson on its home page. “Judge Moore is a man of courage and strong Christian character,” Dobson says, “and I have long admired him.” Another testimonial comes from Oliver North, identified simply as “American Hero”: “Chief Justice Roy Moore is a proven fighter for his faith and our freedom.” In announcing his candidacy, Moore was up to his…
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