Religion Dispatches
…emain volunteer based with no paid church staff. For those who compare the United Church of Bacon with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, another atheism-inspired church with similar goals, Prophet John notes “bacon can be proven to exist, but we have no evidence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” They are cool with the pastafarians though they prefer bacon as the main ingredient in bacon and pasta dishes. Both churches ordain clergy, thou…
Read More…s and the planet, I need to tell a story beyond the victim story about the United States and its privatized and outsourced hopes for its own air and water, unconnected to that of others. I feel right now that I need to make common cause with every sensible Republican I can find. And with China. And with California. And speaking of the unlikeliest allies, perhaps even someone like ex-Exxon Rex Tillerson can help the President move into a more globa…
Read More…tical home that tracks with the teaching of the church: Simply put, in the United States there is no “Catholic party” that could faithfully reflect the Church’s positions on the wide array of policy issues related to the Church’s teachings. We can imagine a party that opposes abortion and euthanasia while also opposing the death penalty and pre-emptive war. Or one that calls for tuition tax credits for parochial schools and also for more aggressiv…
Read More…on of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines” of The United Methodist Church. In their statement, the signers say they are “reticent” to bring charges against Sessions, but his unique role as a lay leader of the UMC and public face of the administration warrant the move. They object in particular to Sessions’ use of a passage from Romans 13 in defense of the policy, a citation the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, top executive of the…
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…ed in Ukrainian flag bumper stickers, locally organized rallies around the United States, celebrity fundraisers, social media organizing, and the auctioning of NFTs. Such displays make no obvious attempt to remedy the disproportionately difficult barriers faced by Black and brown refugees from Ukraine or any other country. Where was this sense of international responsibility toward refugees from Syria who’ve similarly suffered from Russian warmong…
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…prioritization of growth and power that motivated MacArthur has robbed the United States of an important source of social cohesion in a time of crisis.” Never mind that evangelical subculture has been a source of division in America since well before 2020. It’s after spending some time on MacArthur, however, that Hinch gets to what seems to be the crux of the matter for him—criticizing those of us writing pieces critical of evangelical Christian n…
Read More…o said she had been the victim of violence prior to her immigration to the United States and fears for her life if she returns. “Fighting for the rights of the LGBT community is not a crime,” Franco said in Spanish. “It is a right that we all have.” Scotland: Russian Orthodox, Irish Presbyterians Snub Church of Scotland Over Gay Clergy The Russian Orthodox Church has formally cut ties with the Church of Scotland following last month’s vote by the…
Read More…ed are hungry. While there are certainly hungry people in our country, the United States wastes more than 113 tons of food a day. We can’t exactly be called a “hungry” nation and therefore are not “uniquely blessed” in this category. Strike two for America. In Matthew 5, Jesus is emphatic that those who are “uniquely blessed” are peacemakers in the world. The United States has hardly sowed the seeds of peace anywhere in this world—launching pre-em…
Read More…o to close this loophole.” The anti-Adelson bill is like Israel’s Citizens United—in reverse. Although launched a few years before the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision, Israel Hayom is like a Citizens United effort, where a political advocacy group attempted (and ultimately succeeded) in circumventing campaign finance limits by portraying an anti-Hillary Clinton film as media subject to First Amendment protection, rather than independent political ex…
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…ere is no church in Miami big enough to house her devotees. Hers is the story of a statue discovered by two indigenous men and an African slave, and later accompanying a slave community in Cuba. Her statue still remains in a shrine in Cuba, and a duplicate accompanied Cubans into exile here in the United States. She is the most powerful symbol of Cuban religious and cultural identity both on the island and in the Cuban Diaspora. Her face is brown….
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