Religion Dispatches
…ind of Third World duplicity; “their” morality is inferior to ours—we can trust white people, (certain kinds of) Christians, real Americans, etc., but we can’t trust those with brown skin or funny names. The same logic was once applied to women, who were believed to be incapable of the moral and intellectual rigor (some kinds and colors of) men were. So, for the Islamophobe, taqiyya is a means by which Muslims lie to advance their agenda (say, for…
Read More
…rted global warming and the exploitation of labor on the other side of the world. Follow the money Yet, even though much of the characters’ motivations and the show’s driving argument for reform rests upon this critique of capitalism (indeed the judge of all of humankind, played by Maya Rudolph, only agrees to reform heaven after going down to earth, discovering the concept of race, and realizing how imbricated every human decision is in the explo…
Read More…s, and go right on ahead and ask for what I want. That too shows love and trust. I trust that Allah will bring some repose, or grant a favor. I also have a little bit of concern over that: “be careful what you pray for.” Sometimes the consequences of one prayer’s answer are more troubles than you were facing. So, better to be prudent. I used to have a sticker in my car that I think sums it up, “Oh Allah grant me the most benevolent outcome.” This…
Read More
…are in this world know that this is ridiculous.” But that leaves him more frustrated. “The question is, whom do they fear? What world have we entered, and can’t we all admit that this is not working for God’s glory?” Why Isn’t She Married? When I ask Eric Metaxas if he thinks that this heavy-handed editing is happening more frequently to women, he rejects the idea outright. “It’s definitely equal,” he says. Metaxas—who later declines to give an ex…
Read More
…Turning from its core as a religion of practice, the reformers became a garrulous bunch, a word-centered movement allergic to gratuitous ritual, a religious tradition wholly indebted to the power of language and the need to define. “Inevitably, this orgy of acrimonious doctrinal debate would affect the traditional notion of “belief,” pushing intellectual orthodoxy to the fore” where it remains today for much of Christianity. Advances in the scienc…
Read More
…dist, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist houses of worship. Suddenly, with stories in Fox News, Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and elsewhere, conservative media cast Rev. Turner as a front for Planned Parenthood. The National Director of “40 Days for Life” David Bereit told LifeSiteNews.com, “Planned Parenthood has stooped to a new low by exploiting pastors and churches to ‘celebrate’ the slaughter of babies made in God…
Read More…left that’s at fault. For several decades, the legacy media has conflated news about American religion with news about the Religious Right. And even when the media does write about religious moderates, it’s usually on denominational in-fighting over key issues on the right’s agenda (gay marriage, ordination of women and gays, and abortion). The disparity between what’s deemed newsworthy and what’s not would be comical, if it weren’t for the news…
Read More
…interpretations and who are dispensing their good advice. That’s not good news. Good news is, Jesus came to give us life so we would have it abundantly. He came so that we wouldn’t have to work, but could just be, that we could love him and love people and enjoy this creation that he’s given us. That’s good news. The rest of it is just advice. What does your future hold? We have open hands. It’s uncomfortable not knowing what’s next but we feel l…
Read More
…he duty of scholars of religion and theologians is to expose the religious stories that construct this ecocidal scaffolding, rending apart wildlife preservation and those diverse coalitions of peoples and creatures coalescing to protect the water and the land. We must expose these stories because the atmospheric flesh winding itself through all of our earthen creativity requires an evil banality of many people in power praying to the status quo. W…
Read More
…otal defense of religious freedom comparable to Civil Rights-era activism. Stories like these and the news from Oakland reveal that Mormons in many places are struggling to come to terms with the legacy of the Proposition 8 campaign and the longer history of Mormon attitudes towards homosexuality. As Carol Lynn Pearson, the Mormon LGBT advocate who attended the September 19 Oakland meeting, observes: I think the people who didn’t see [Proposition…
Read More