Religion Dispatches
…t thing for a couple trapped in a loveless or abusive relationship. People change, circumstances change, and often it’s best for two people to part ways. Even religious institutions, over the years, have come to understand this and don’t tend to vigorously condemn people for the decision. Many churches, in fact, have divorce care groups and other activities specifically for divorced people. Even Ron Prentice, the executive director of the Californ…
Read More…ystem of producing losers and winners is largely arbitrary and needs to be changed, and we’re not going to get market change until we understand, paradoxically, that the market can’t do it all. Without the freedom to walk away from the market, there is no freedom to be anything but at the mercy of the market. It’s almost impossible to be entirely free of the market these days, but it is possible, and politically feasible, to decouple social and ma…
Read More…ased, openly gay Muslim,” secretly videotaped his journey to Mecca on his iPhone and other small phones. “I was terrified because they reserve the death penalty for people like me,” Sharma said. Several times he had his equipment seized and video files deleted by authorities. But he persevered with both his spiritual journey and his film. “I was there making this pilgrimage for the thousands of gay Muslims who were too scared to go to Saudi Arabia…
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…ce aside, Caldwell is a racist who has translated religion into a set of unchangeable and interchangeable believers. He believes there are no meaningful differences among Muslims; at one point, he even underlines the point by noting that although Volvos are not Volkswagens, both are still cars (and of European manufacture, I might add)—another example of Caldwell’s argumentative impotence. Not only are Muslims indistinguishable, which is the relig…
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…going to leave a lot of hearts strangely warmed. As I say, if you want to change someone’s politics, calling them a bad Christian is counterproductive. If, on the other hand, you want to show the people on your side that you’re a good and faithful leader, picking a fight with the leaders of the other side is an excellent strategy. This is what Saul Alinsky used to call “punching up.” In other words, increasing your own stature by forcing your opp…
Read More…concept of the Big Bang, and embraced the scientific consensus on climate change. Of course, defining human experience isn’t quite the same as measuring the level of the ocean. Psychological definitions are openly subjective—and reflective of ideology—in a way that a theory of evolution or a model of climate change is not. Still, this is what it looks like when a major religious authority parts ways with an emerging scientific consensus. At the v…
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…however, and in combination with a strong, single-minded constituency such as the NRA’s, this can lead to an extremely effective lobbying game. I think that doesn’t change my point about what it would take to create political change on gun reform, but it is worth noting….
Read More…e given to gay Catholics in the mid-synod report raised hopes that a major change in the church’s attitude, if not its teaching, was just around the corner. The fact that those changes were scrapped—along with language acknowledging value in “irregular” partnerships and a possible opening for divorced Catholics to receive communion—in the final document shouldn’t come as a surprise. The overwhelming majority of bishops and cardinals at the synod w…
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…ional law with its ever-deepening occupation, and Israel that will have to change its very raison d’etre in many ways in order for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be resolved. Israelis of course know this full well. This is one reason why they distrust President Obama so much. While he hasn’t pushed them yet, they understand that to cross the precipice to peace will require Israel to radically change its basic political, economic, and ideologi…
Read More…s described it in his movie, is working for Hannity and he sees no need to change his message. It’s easier to change what Jesus meant by “love your enemies” than to change a message that makes you millions of dollars a year. At its heart, Moore’s film is what it is billed as – a love story. The movie is a very real embodiment of Jesus’ command to love those who would rather destroy than build up, who would rather horde than distribute fairly, and…
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