Religion Dispatches
…f electoral reckoning, this year’s presidential campaign has rattled the bones of the dead and awakened the spirits from the past, haunting the living in present times of war, economic turmoil, and environmental crisis. A stretch, you say? Unnecessarily morose, over-determined, overly-brooding commentary that profanes the sacrality of children’s fun and games, you think? Historians are not usually the life of the party, but history does shed light…
Read More
…k provided detailed biomechanical explanations of each posture and its fitness and health benefits. Iyengar prescribed a disciplined form of body maintenance, famously referring to the body as a “temple” and arguing, “[The yogi] conquers the body and renders it a fit vehicle for the soul.” He prescribed the use of fitness tools, such as belts, bricks, and ropes, to assist the yogi in her quest to “conquer” the body. Iyengar established authority…
Read More
…’s Constitution—an essential component of “ordered liberty.” However, with new personnel and a green light from the US Supreme Court, that liberty has been wiped out. Planned Parenthood has dropped that particular lawsuit, but there may be another path forward for advocates of reproductive rights. In her dissenting opinion, Iowa’s Chief Justice Susan Christensen pointed to the state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and highlighted a…
Read More…vely. To add insult to injury, a recent poll conducted by the LDS Church-owned Deseret News found Utah would vote for a Democratic candidate in November over Trump. Utah hasn’t sided with the Democrats since Lyndon Johnson’s landslide election in 1964. Why have Mormons rejected Trump? As Buzzfeed’s McKay Coppins explained over the weekend, while Mormons are overwhelmingly Republican they diverge from the party’s base on several important issues th…
Read More
…rs as well as religious leaders, is the so-called “Rise of the Religious Nones.” The number of dropouts/defectors from church involvement has risen significantly over the last several years, such that about 23 percent of the American population now claims no religious affiliation. They leave for many reasons, ranging from a general disillusionment with large-scale institutions in general to the politicization of religion and religious scandals—whe…
Read More
…and procession to find a few confused and pitifully human old men at microphones still trying to send out impressive puffs of smoke. Within 20-40 years, we will have women priests ordained with the blessing of canon law (not outside canon law as at present). This will happen sooner than previously expected because each act of abuse or cover-up weakens the power of the male hierarchy. Their convoluted reasons for why only men can represent Jesus C…
Read More…Democrats. Take for example, the arguments made by Eric Sapp, founding partner of the Eleison Group, who the RNS article notes worked doing faith outreach on a number of Democratic campaigns in 2006 and 2008 but not in 2010. In both the RNS interview and in an article on Huffington Post, Sapp argues for a causal link between lackluster faith outreach in this election cycle and Democratic losses; his conclusion: “the results were disastrous.” To su…
Read More
…the right to fully and freely practice your religion, as individuals, business owners and academic institutions. I will make absolutely certain religious orders like The Little Sisters of Poor are not bullied by the federal government because of their religious beliefs. And while the Catholic bishops were officially supportive of the Affordable Care Act (once they forced through the abortion restrictions they wanted), it’s not difficult to imagin…
Read More…riage. These too deserve to be carefully studied and understood. Any doctrine that would be used to exclude a good number of the earth’s people from full equality before the law and God should be very carefully examined. When it comes to gay issues, most Mormons have only the muddiest understanding of what life is like for gay people or about the doctrinal reasons their LDS leaders say and do the things they do. In fact, most Mormons have only the…
Read More…king. What is mock packing, you ask? Well, for this trip I have almost all new clothes, and I need to make sure they are sufficient for what I am about to undertake. So I tried on everything, including gifts from others. I’ve had to discard one pair of pants a gift from a friend in Indonesia, cause they are just too short on the waist and the leg (I am like a giant compared to the average Indonesian). Also those nifty dresses (or sacks) I bought t…
Read More