Religion Dispatches
…ion that only the decline of the church could facilitate. Artists are free to identify as they please, but denying that they are Christian artists when their bodies and speech run thick with the Good News is every bit as believable as a human calling himself a taco just because he’s in a Taco Bell. …
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…d to vilify Muslims.” Brownback’s nomination is also the latest sign that Trump is willing to hire even economic “losers” if it appeals to his base, which has been grumbling lately about the president’s attacks on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. If confirmed, Brownback would be the first religious freedom Ambassador-at-Large who did not attend seminary or a pursue a similar denominational education. He’d be the first Catholic to hold the…
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…le many conservative senators, including then-presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, could easily have made an issue of David’s well-publicized positions in support of abortion and gay rights, they and other senators chose to focus only on his capabilities for the ambassadorial position. I came away even more admiring of Rabbi Saperstein as a model of fairness and generosity in his own person. May his tribe increase. *** As to my assess…
Read More…ermitting recipients of taxpayer dollars to discriminate in hiring. If the World Vision letter signers had their way, an evangelical organization receiving taxpayer-funded government grants could discriminate against a Muslim applicant because he or she doesn’t share a faith in Christ, or against a lesbian applicant because the organization believes homosexuality to be a sin. Franklin Graham, for example, who signed the letter, believes that Islam…
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…eighbor. Luther rejected the distinction between divine church and secular world, the world was as much the realm of God’s grace and preservation as the church—the whole world is the place of God’s creation. So Lutherans hear in sermons again and again that they are sent into the world to love the neighbor, to carry out their vocation in the world. The secular is not the place where God is absent, it is the place where Lutherans are called to serv…
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…ative arc? Perhaps most importantly, how can we make things better in this world when it seems like this world is at its worst? As I teach about apocalyptic texts once again, I mourn for the Strack family. Though they are a family I did not know, I mourn for their lost lives and their surviving relatives, their friends, and community. The end of the world is always and never near—and it matters that we understand why. Photo by flickr user Stephe…
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…urn to if he couldn’t prevent the clinic from opening. They’ll run their “Truth Truck”—a large vehicle with side panels covered with images of late-term aborted fetuses—and plant 200 crosses outside the clinic every day. They’ll limit the number of clients willing to enter by making women “run a gauntlet of pro-life literature and information,” and intimidate potential vendors and contractors out of doing business with Burkhart by tarring them as…
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…ator for intercessory prayer to a supreme being or power. No other word in English, so far as I know, marks that register as does the word “prayer.” Marks it, I suppose, and moves on to the next new thing in the digitally-integrated world, rather than calling for the physical, spiritual, and relational action that traditionally completes the practice itself. We might conclude, then, that the prayer meme has cheapened an ancient, arguably venerable…
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…ict and hostility based on passionate dislike for the other—are staples in news media. Additionally and beyond the news, so much of popular culture is fueled by depictions of hate and difference overcome by cruel violence. Whether it’s the cowboys killing the savage Indians, the space hero destroying the ruthless aliens, or the soldier slicing the enemy’s throat, hate is elemental in the entertainment industry. Do we even need to bring up shooter…
Read More…RD contributing editor Anthea Butler, who wrote about Trayvon Martin and American Exceptionalism this week, appeared on Melissa Harris Perry’s MSNBC program this morning to talk more about the tragic shooting and its aftermath. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy…
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