Religion Dispatches
…al question whether we have finally woken up from our dream of perpetually cheap oil, free of all cost, free of all sacrifice. And yet the events in the Gulf call out for confession, for corporate confession and repentance. By corporate I mean BP, of course, but even more importantly I mean our society as a corporate whole. We must move beyond defensiveness and self-righteousness and work toward a cultural consensus that acknowledges the vital wor…
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…our T-shirts, they learn what we’re about,” Lobért explained to Telegraph reporter Philip Sherwell. “We call it booby-trapping.” But those who attend adult entertainment fairs aren’t exactly Lobért’s target audience. Her conspicuous appearance is also meant to attract the other women posing for photos and signing autographs, the women outside and in the casinos, the women working the Strip—the women she is trying to save. “The girls can relate to…
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…n North Carolina. Referring to Bakker’s theological “feel-good stance” as “cheap grace,” Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League attributed Bakker’s preaching of a “toxic and counterfeit gay-affirming gospel” to being injured by the church as a child. “In some ways he’s right,” Bakker told me in response. “It’s called empathy.” He continued: “Every time someone accuses me of cheap grace, I go back and say no, it’s free grace. Grace is free…
Read More…ttle-discussed provision of the ACA, hospitals that serve disproportionate numbers of the urban poor are losing their subsidies. But for Obama not to stand his ground and say that the cheap, low-level policies that many healthy people now have should be cancelled for the sake of the common good: that’s just inexcusable. On the other hand, he’s not getting a lot of help from his Democratic “friends” on this one, and for the same reason: They likewi…
Read More…tween the bunnies-and-eggs version of Easter, and the church-service version. Merchandisers are wise to define Easter by marshmallow chicks and colorful baskets, rather than bring theology into it. But there are always exceptions. One is the Oriental Trading Company. Founded to create cheap plastic toys for carnivals, OTC is now a leading supplier of cheap plastic stuff for church groups and Christian schools. Their party supply catalog always con…
Read More…t’s put that cheap argument to bed. At Patheos, Benjamin Corey shakes that cheap argument awake: Can we stop complaining about this bogus idea that American Christians are persecuted now? I mean, really. Can we stop? The world needs us to turn from ourselves and focus on this real persecution, because it’s evil and must be exposed and stopped. However, our own self-centeredness as Americans is getting in the way of the discussion on real anti-Chri…
Read More…credit: the man has balls to say this. Yes, fracking gives Americans more cheap carbon energy—for a while. And then we’re left with ruined landscapes, ruined aquifers, and our same old dependence on foreign energy sources, having failed to turn to renewables while mindlessly pumping more cheap petroleum into our veins. Like other critics of the new encyclical, Brooks chalks up the pope’s hostility to capitalism as the product of naivete or perhap…
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…ples and yet injustice remains. Why? In short: land. While calling for the repudiation of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery that is the shaky ground of all colonial sovereignty in the Americas—including in Canada and the US—the TRC report largely skirts concerns about land restitution. Similarly, the bishops’ statement ignores the colonialism and dispossession at the heart of issues of injustice, racism, and prejudice in Canada. If settlers in N…
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…of apologists who never cease trying to portray the decent ones as broadly representative of white Christians. The decent ones deserve honor, but they were never representative of a faith tradition that on the whole has been more than happy to sanctify the American System of white male supremacy and cheap labor. No one disputes that the current upsurge in anti-racist activism is about police violence. But behind that everyday horrific violence lie…
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…urrectionists were only pushing the logic of the arguments made by so many Republican representatives, strategists, and news outlets to their logical conclusion. “This is not us” is an inadequate response. Because this is us, and whatever reconciliation means in the coming years includes facing that fact. * It might sound counterintuitive, maybe even vaguely impious, but as a Christian and a theological ethicist, I am wary of calls for reconciliat…
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