Religion Dispatches
…t aggressive evangelizing in the military: Scandals have included the ties between Pentagon brass and the evangelical organization Christian Embassy and the aggressive and even hostile evangelism at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Another story that received attention was the post-9/11 comments of Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, who, in speaking to evangelical audiences, compared Islam to Satanic evil and framed the “war on terror” as one of spiritua…
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…n to bless the set, which seemed plagued by literal supernatural forces. A bonus featurette called Faith and Fear packaged with another Conjuring Universe film, The Nun, features Bryan D. Ouelette—an “autocephalous [i.e. self-appointed] eastern Orthodox/western Catholic bishop”—blessing the set of The Devil Made Me Do It before filming began in 2019. Ouellette tells the crew, “The cosmos doesn’t know the difference between fiction and non-fiction….
Read More…ally? Really? No no, I can top that: “Brother Fire.” Best of all: “Sister Bodily Death.” Who comes up with this crap? Oh, wait. A major Christian saint came up with that crap (Hint: He died in Assisi). As a bonus, he talked about “Mother Earth.” You may find that it’s helpful to know something about a subject before you start talking about it. Just a suggestion. Hugs and kisses, Pastor Dan …
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…ry of how they got to America is really awesome. 10. Remember, the hymn says: “Let us oft speak kind words to each other,” not “let us oft call people we disagree with Hitler.” And finally, one bonus reason: 11. We’ve got the soothing tones of Elder Richard G. Scott. If that doesn’t lower your blood pressure, nothing will. Safe travels, and happy voting….
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…nd or vacation themed. In any case, I like to take note. And, as a special bonus, today my friend, the Pittsburgh poet Ellen McGrath Smith, posted a really wonderful little poem as her status (On the peonies/ants are running errands/Petal by petal they fall off the globe). I burned maybe thirty minutes on all this digital sociality before I saw that the venerable scholar of ancient church history, Rebecca Lyman, had posted a characteristically wis…
Read More…s.” He supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. He supports requiring teachers “to present the evidences both supportive of and contradictory to the theory of evolution.” And in response to the question on abortion, he said it should never be allowed, adding, “Life comes from God. Life begins at conception. Abortion is always tantamount to murder.” This from a lawmaker who is worried that a…
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…continuation of a decades-long conversation with them about the relations between our moral and political commitments on the one hand, and our personal lives on the other. Of course, I hope that people with Ph.D.s in ethics will read the book too! Are you hoping just to inform readers? Give them pleasure? Piss them off? I hope to make them think differently about ethics and ordinary life. Hopefully that can be both pleasurable and informative. Wh…
Read More…render to them until I have completed all three primary objectives AND the bonus mission…It is likely that I will pray to God for strength at one point during that operation, as I think most people in that situation would….I can’t possibly imagine how my state of mind will be during the time of the operation, though. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Christians are in some way (or any way) culpable for his acts, as Ross Douthat maintains people ar…
Read More…nce, the pope offered poetic exhortations on the divine beauty of marriage between one man and one woman. At his weekly general audience Wednesday, Francis focused on the relationship between engagement and marriage. According to a Catholic News Service article (which was cross-posted by NCR), Francis said: “The covenant of love between a man and a woman, a covenant for life, cannot be improvised; it cannot be done from one day to the next,” he sa…
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…LGBT community An article in Global Voices says that there’s a difference between what the law books say about LGBT people and the reality they face. Jordan’s stance on LGBT issues is considered one of the more advanced in the Middle East, as criminalization of same-sex relations was removed from country’s the Penal Code in 1951. However, decriminalization alone has not ensured complete freedom for members of Jordan’s LGBT community. Article Six…
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