Religion Dispatches
…ks but for all who struggle, that we must continue until freedom is won. Juneteenth is the canonization of civic struggle and the celebration of freedom, not from some foreign power, but from domestic tyranny. Remember to discuss this with friends and family so 20 years from now Juneteenth isn’t just about the hibiscus iced tea and red velvet cake….
Read More…“anti-Christian hostility.” It seems clear that he was a self-radicalized domestic terrorist. Roof may have been a “troubled loner,” but his decision to commit violence was made in the context of a larger culture of racism. As a religion scholar, I see Roof’s fantasy of sparking a race war as an example of millennial violence; conservative declension narratives and calls to “take our country back” are religious language as much as political rheto…
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…ut Walker finds: “Permitting same-sex couples to marry will not affect the number of opposite sex couples who marry, divorce, cohabit, have children outside of marriage, or otherwise affect the stability of opposite-sex marriages.” Oh, and about those children, Walker addresses the stereotypes that gays and lesbians are child molesters and would make horrible parents. Walker finds: “The children of same-sex couples benefit when their parents can m…
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…guardian of a familiar, dependable, eternally true moral order on both the domestic and foreign fronts. Indeed, the cold war became primarily a way to symbolize and whip up fervor for the culture war. The enemy became an enormously complex, protean, malleable, and thus easily manipulated compound of many symbolic elements. The prime threat was ultimately spiritual seeking itself, since it undermined the possibility of any permanent certainty in th…
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…ugh on the streets almost universally have experienced some kind of trauma—domestic abuse, mental illness, addiction, racism, and longstanding poverty. But the wonderful thing is, even in the midst of all this, so many of the people we meet and serve still can laugh, appreciate the earth’s beauty, enjoy a good book, or accept the love of a life partner. Over time, as physical needs are met, we see more laughter and less anger, more peace and less…
Read More…freedom. Religion questions are always pegged to the US religious right’s domestic policy agenda. Not that these aren’t crucial issues facing America: the restriction of access to abortion, the enduring discussion of long-settled questions of the effectiveness and morality of using contraception, the exposure of retrograde views of national politicians about rape all deserve attention. Throughout the presidential and vice-presidential debates, t…
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…ially gender neutral on March 1; same-sex couples previously registered as domestic partners by apply to a local magistrate to transform their partnership into a legal marriage. Lebanon: Activists prepare for LGBT health week LGBT Health Week starts on Saturday, March 11. This year’s theme is “Marginalization is bad for health.” United Kingdom: UK tells gay asylum seekers to go back to Afghanistan and pretend to be straight The government recently…
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…ns voting Republican and making common cause with the religious right over domestic social issues as well as support for Israel. Such realities seem not to touch the powerful fantasies of those seeing America’s shifting demographics and yearning for an imagined, halcyon past. In the debate over judicial nominations, there is ample room for arguing over political and ideological issues in the law. Who is going to sit in judgment over our most impor…
Read More…ological,” with claims that his incoherent, and often incompatible, mix of domestic and international policies and priorities somehow transcends ideology and points to a new way of governing that is neither left or right. Much has also been made of growing fault lines within the evangelical community, with suggestions that the evangelicalism of old white men is dead. Taken together, the rise of Trump and the fracturing evangelicalism suggest that…
Read More…Jesus in Peru. The FBI invited Westboro Baptist Church to be a part of its domestic terrorism training program. The goal was to give officers a chance to see extremists up close and “understand what makes them tick.” The Southern Poverty Law Center has released a new report on anti-Muslim hate. Lynne Torgerson, a candidate for a Minnesota congressional seat, claims that the incumbent, Keith Ellison, who happens to be one of Congress’ two Muslims,…
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