Religion Dispatches
…agerly clicked on it. I was surprised when I saw this wasn’t a clip of his latest hysterical stand up, but an essay he penned for the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. The topic of his essay was how he came to be an atheist. The whole piece is here. While there is humor in the piece, it’s actually more of a sweet thoughtful response to all the people who ask him and other atheists why they don’t believe in God. And as my husband noticed, Gerva…
Read More
…I thought, as I headed to the backyard with a cup of coffee and Il Papa’s latest digital missive. “New Forms of Shared Awareness” I couldn’t possibly have expected the day to offer much more than a thumbs up from one of leading thinkers and activists on education, spirituality, and social change. But it turned out that the Pope seems to have cribbed much of my commentary on his 2010 letter on digital social media. Whereas that letter focused on t…
Read More…ry has made him a hero to the religious right, a role he has embraced. His latest claim is that he conducted a “gay exorcism” on a lesbian servicemember, an incident he described on the David Pakman show: Klingenschmitt: As a chaplain I prayed with a young lesbian sailor who came to me and said, “Chaplain, I don’t like the way I’m feeling. Can you help me with this?” We prayed with her and she renounced her sin, she invited Jesus Christ to be the…
Read More…ve long been critical of the Air Force Academy’s tolerance for, and indeed promotion of proselytizing and coercive evangelizing of cadets. MMRF’s objection to McClary is only the latest in a ongoing battle between MMRF and the Air Force Academy. MMRF became involved after one of its members who attends the academy complained about McClary, saying that attendance at the luncheon is technically optional, but “strongly encouraged.” According to MMRF…
Read More…’s belt are the three kings of the nativity. Jesus, in short, was just the latest in a long line of astral myths that use the movement of the stars as a source of mythic inspiration. Similarly, Moses is just another in a long line of law givers that includes Manu of India, Minos of Greece, and Mises of Egpyt. (See, they even all start with M, the film points out, suggesting a mysterious connection.) Similarly, the Ten Commandments are a derivative…
Read More…y board of the Clarion Fund, whose Islamophobic propaganda films have been promoted by current and former elected officials and the Republican Jewish Committee, and which plans to screen its latest documentary, Iranium, to lawmakers early next month. Gaffney has been peddling the bogus claim that shari’ah law represents a real threat to the Constitution, and has called on Congress to “investigate” that as well. He employs someone who believes bein…
Read More…entaries Relentless, Obsession, and The Third Jihad, will soon release its latest film, Iranium, which promises to fear monger about the threat of a nuclear Iran and pressure the US for military action. Just before the holidays, Shore, who has produced all the films, sent out fundraising emails reminding supporters of how his organization brought its previous films to “millions of households worldwide. The films have educated politicians, media, a…
Read More
…the while keeping abreast of Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinions and the latest from University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales? (The book tosses out these references with an air of insouciance, as in “I came across a wonderful book…”) Perhaps Palin herself is, in fact, conversant with these sources, and, if so, more power to her. But we should probably remind ourselves that this is the same person who, during the 2008 presidential campaign,…
Read More…right direction, although the numbers remain depressing. According to the latest Gallup Poll, four out of ten Americans still believe that God created man in his image about 10,000 years ago: A small minority of Americans hold the “secular evolution” view that humans evolved with no influence from God—but the number has risen from 9% in 1982 to 16% today. At the same time, the 40% of Americans who hold the “creationist” view that God created huma…
Read More
…rviewed Sears, both in and out of character, at Sears’ Charleston, S.C., home. Last week, Andrew traveled back to Charleston, this time to collaborate with Sears on his latest video, where the two discuss science, religion, and why journalists will one day be replaced by robots. …
Read More