Religion Dispatches
…such bills. The title “Academic Freedom” sounds noble enough (how could a freedom-loving American oppose such a thing?) but the real purpose is to to proclaim: “Evolution is a lie! Evolution is evil! If your children learn we came from monkeys, they will go to hell!!!!!” Chism unsuccessfully sponsored similar anti-evolution legislation last year. According to the National Center for Science Education, Chism told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Jo…
Read More…n offer secular invocations pursuant to a legislative prayer practice. The website provides sample secular invocations and an interactive map to find a humanist who can deliver an invocation in one’s local area. Though this is a new program, there are already 50 individuals approved to give secular invocations, and the program is actively seeking to bolster this number. “Non-religious people are often asked to contribute to a ceremonial event, but…
Read More…ers, the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation. And it would be news to right-wing groups like the National Organization for Marriage and Family Research Council, who are misrepresenting its findings and trumpeting them as evidence that stable, committed, same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry or adopt children. Regnerus seems untroubled that his research has been and is being touted as providing evidence that gay families are…
Read More…n offer secular invocations pursuant to a legislative prayer practice. The website provides sample secular invocations and an interactive map to find a humanist who can deliver an invocation in one’s local area. Though this is a new program, there are already 50 individuals approved to give secular invocations, and the program is actively seeking to bolster this number. “Non-religious people are often asked to contribute to a ceremonial event, but…
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…health At the end of last week, police arrested the vice president of anti-AIDS pro-LGBT rights group Alternatives-Cameroon after he was accused of being homosexual. The man, a doctor, was unable to work on Saturday where he was supposed to oversee health screening for men who have sex with men. He was reportedly released after a few days. The organization released a statement complaining of police harassment and lack of response to ongoing scams…
Read More…heir family members with them to vote in the May 22 referendum. Another pro-equality video was released by the musician Hozier. Seventh-day Adventists: ‘Ex-gay’ speaker disinvited from family camp meeting We reported last week that the “Holy Sexuality Conference” scheduled for this week had been cancelled. This week, Spectrum’s Jared Wright reports on an additional development: The North England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has withdrawn i…
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…essing. In this epoch of unhappiness, Pope Francis has delivered unto us a new book. Happiness in this Life, a series of snippets from his public addresses, is not the in-depth sort of theological tome he’s written along the lines of his exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, or his encyclical on the environment, Laudauto Si. Instead, it’s the kind of book readers can pick up at random and pull bits and pieces from. Divided into subsections w…
Read More…elical base splintering in different directions. Lane represents the pander-by-praying and extolling-the-Christian-nation wing. The other wing, as I reported last week, has tired of that routine. They’d rather hear the candidates talk about religious freedom, not offer overwrought displays of piety blended with patriotism. That’s not to understate, of course, Lane’s likely visible role in the early primary states (and, significantly, in also helpi…
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…ich we were created to do in the image of God, we give birth to ourselves anew. Welcoming these new births with an open heart, Carlson believes, is the surest way to notice the divine in ourselves. There is an optimism in his tone, but it’s not as if he expects salvation to come from machines. Nor does he give license to infinite personal choice. Perhaps the most important implications of The Indiscrete Image begin with noticing that we are not is…
Read More…ications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As protests mounted Monday, a KTTH spokesperson defended Limbaugh, using a boilerplate statement from his syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks: AM 770 The Truth is committed to providing its listeners with access to a broad range of opinion and commentary. The contraception debate is one that sparks strong emotion and opinions on both sides of the issue. Radio c…
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