Religion Dispatches
…whose establishment or “rebirth” he and many fellow evangelicals saw as a sign of God’s hand moving in history. Evangelicals and Jews Become Partners Today, it’s commonplace for the Christian Right to invoke the idea of “Judeo-Christian values,” and for America to once again become “one nation under God.” Overlooking the pesky fact that that phrase was only added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, they insist that both the Christian and Jewish…
Read More…s.” After the parents met with the school board, Hensley was told she must sign a letter of apology, which she refused, arguing that the presented letter contained factual errors. She was later reassigned to teaching a remedial language arts class. Hensley filed a lawsuit against the district saying that her First and 14th Amendment rights had been violated. According to Hensley’s complaint, the parents demanded she publicly admit she demonstrated…
Read More…ethodist Building (known to locals as “the God box”) on Capitol Hill had a sign supporting the DREAM Act. (h/t Religion News Service). “After all,” Phillips adds, “what can you say about a church that considers Hillary Clinton to be a member in good standing?” Phillips goes on to call the church “the religious arm of socialism” because it supports “illegal immigration” and “socialist health care;” in sum, “a socialist wish list.” After the Senate…
Read More…anged its sports teams’ name from “Rainbow Warriors” to “Warriors” and redesigned its logo to eliminate a rainbow from it. Now, according to One News Now, one group on the religious right is demanding that gays and lesbians give up their grip on the rainbow. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the San Diego-based Ruth Institute [a project of the National Organization for Marriage] rightly argues that the rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with man, and…
Read More…the airport, for my own travel or to pick up family and friends. The road signs had a little airplane logo to designate the way to the airport. I never got lost going, but always got lost trying to get back home. I used to say, there needs to be a sign with a little picture of my house to direct me. I knew how to get to the mountain but I forgot to make markers for getting back! Anyway, while wandering around until I found the road with that gate…
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…to be reckoned with and has myriad forms of expression, commitment, moral codes, and values—just like global Christianity. In the U.S., Muslims are increasingly part of the social landscape, with mosques, community centers, and public figures (including the first Muslim Miss America and the easy reelection of one of the two Muslim members of Congress) who contribute to the fabulous religious mosaic that characterizes the best of American values….
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…ions are at least as important as sober rationality in making political choices.” Visceral emotions frequently govern the debate over Israel as well. If Palin does run for president in 2012 we can be sure that unequivocal support for Israel will be a significant campaign issue, and that candidate Palin, as a master of appealing to visceral emotions, will be at a significant advantage. *An earlier version of this article incorrectly associated P…
Read More…nemployment benefits will add to the deficit: Conceding on this point is a sign that the GOP senatorial leadership still doesn’t get it. There is no offset for this extension of unemployment benefits, meaning that the GOP did not insist that some way be found to cover the cost of this program without borrowing money from their own grandchildren. They’re just going to willy-nilly add to the deficit cavalierly and casually, as if the Tea Party movem…
Read More…des, although in different ways. In anti-government Tahrir Square, I saw a sign instructing Americans to stay out of Egypt’s business – while I heard pro-government supporters (peacefully queuing along with everyone else to get into Tahrir) claiming that foreign agents were in the middle of all this. Not that this translated into any sort of unsafe environment for foreigners in Tahrir itself. Tahrir, despite being the scene of a protest bereft of…
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…ive ditherers, and certainly not sufficiently dangerous to warrant being designated an international terrorist organisation, as was feared in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Two things are worth bearing in mind in reading about the group’s role in the coming weeks and months. First, the Brotherhood is well aware of the potential backlash, both locally and internationally, if it is seen to have captured the state, which is certainly a factor i…
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