Religion Dispatches
…ians, these Purists argued, only celebrated Easter. Still later, the whole domestic and private edifice of trees and turkeys and elaborate gift-giving (in part imagined as a reaction against the public drinking and wassailing) were a creation of the 19th century. And the evolution of that alternative tradition has many Christians on guard these days, trying to “keep the Christ in Christmas.” Christ, it is feared may have been trumped by Saint Nich…
Read More
…that didn’t warrant expulsion from his party; it was only in 2019, after a domestic terrorism investigation over his involvement with the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, that he was finally expelled from the State House Republican Caucus. Since that time, Shea has become the senior pastor at a Spokane, Washington-based church called On Fire Ministries. This past June two sons of On Fire church members were amo…
Read More
…ed Luther, which imagines the father of the Reformation as having the same number of heads as the dragon of Revelation, each one symbolizing an aspect of the theologian’s supposed contradictory thought and personality. *** *** Notorious for the breadth and the extent of his persecutions, the so-called “Witch-Finder General” Matthew Hopkins was responsible for over a hundred executions in the years he was active, taking advantage…
Read More…igious institutions as a source of their power and legitimacy. In both his domestic and foreign policy efforts, Trump has governed as if evangelical Christianity were America’s state religion, empowering groups and individuals whose voices were considered fringe and largely ineffectual until last year. As Americans on average have become increasingly tolerant and liberal on a number of issues, many evangelicals have become more conservative. Becau…
Read More
…ately situated in a teenager’s Fortress of Solitude (her bedroom), they’re domestic shrines, depicting the tutelary god at his most iconic, styled and posed and lit (if clothes make the man, lighting makes the god in celebrity portraiture and Christian iconography alike), then retouched into an unattainably idealized version of Himself—a Photoshop apotheosis. Icons have played a key role in the contemplative lives of Christians for centuries, putt…
Read More…fend the state and federal Constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” she was not committing herself to take up arms. Gonaver is a Quaker and pacifist. Her efforts to reach a resolution ran into a brick wall. She was informed by Cal State Fullerton last August that “there are no exceptions allowed to the statement within the CSU, or additions as you propose.” And they told her in no uncertain terms that if she could not “sign the s…
Read More…opulation, but they are mostly concentrated in the states with the highest number of delegate and electoral votes (New York, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois), they contribute financially to politicians disproportionately to their percentage, and they are often in key roles as opinion shapers in the communities where they work or live. Democratic Party appeals to the Jewish vote are not much different than appeals to other con…
Read More…al medical treatment, or that divorce is immoral, even in circumstances of domestic violence. H.B. 3859 violates the Establishment Clause by allowing state funds to be used to compel minors into religious education, without providing ample opportunities for comparable secular instruction or support. Where private individuals have no or insufficient choice in selecting a religious program, government support for a religious organization violates th…
Read More…ay of laxity by China, which is rarely tolerant of protesters—particularly domestic dissenters—the three were questioned and quickly released after their first protest. Nonetheless, US anti-abortion groups dispensed hand-wringing press releases at the 14-hour silence following the group’s arrest, before the three were flown home at China’s expense. Claiming to be persecuted has become a familiar feature of Christian right rhetoric used by everyone…
Read More
…lent extremism programming, or CVE, is on the rise at home and abroad. The domestic side of the story is receiving solid coverage by outlets like AlterNet and substantial pushback from an active coalition of civil society and civil libertarian groups, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “…the CVE agenda adopts a particular approach to religion in which the latter is underst…
Read More