Religion Dispatches
…as a heretic. Sound familiar? No, this isn’t the story of Rob Bell, whose latest book Love Wins remains among the top 10 bestsellers on Amazon.com. The flurry of voices condemning and congratulating him continues unabated, driving up sales and raising Bell’s profile [Listen to Rob Bell discuss hell and the controversy here]. This is the story of Carlton Pearson, an African-American minister trained by the famous Pentecostal televangelist Oral Rob…
Read More…ve played a large role in opposing same-sex marriage issues, including the latest attempt to pass marriage equality in Maryland. “They’re not going to be distracted by any polls and certainly not what the laity says about these things. We’ll certainly see a lot of activism on the part of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to try to keep at bay the move toward increasing laws favoring same-sex marriage,” Dillon said. Another surprise in th…
Read More…ent once and for all is a terribly naïve way to read a very complicated text. Instead, one must be trained to actually read the Bible in a responsible manner – preferably, as Hauerwas states, within a community dedicated to taking the Bible seriously. As Jennifer Wright Knust writes in her latest book, Unprotected Texts, “The only way the Bible can be regarded as straightforward and simple is if no one bothers to read it. The Bible was not a colle…
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…ovided relief to residents in Kobe, they are eager to help victims of this latest natural disaster. World Vision Japan is gathering relief funds and is working to aid victims; Caritas Japan, the Catholic charity, is gathering donations and working with dioceses to provide support in the afflicted region; the United Church of Christ is housing refugees in its Sendai churches; and the Salvation Army in Tokyo is gathering money and opened their doors…
Read More…hich are America’s best. We sold them to Egypt along with hundreds of our latest and greatest fighter jets because Egypt was controlled by Mubarak who was America’s friend. Can you imagine what Israel faces with Iran, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Russia coming after them? The prophet Ezekiel clearly predicted this battle thousands of years ago and you are watching the players get into position with lightning speed. Jesus said: “When you see these…
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…o the spooky fairy tale has now transformed into a sort of love-story. The latest film version, Red Riding Hood, is thus a knowing participant in a very long folkloric tradition that takes us all the way back to Early Modern Europe. There are intriguing gestures toward each of the tales Orenstein rehearses, and they’ve even added a little vampire logic for good measure. These werewolves can pass their powers on with a bite, but only in the once-ev…
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…hops’ Committee on Doctrine declared that Professor Elizabeth A. Johnson’s latest book, Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God (NY: Continuum, 2007) contains “misrepresentations, ambiguities, and errors that bear upon the faith of the Catholic Church.” Or, as the bishops insist, it “contaminates the traditional Catholic understanding of God.” At issue is nothing less than how we engage in theological reflection in postm…
Read MoreHot off the press: the latest religion Bloggingheads, with yours truly and the American Conservative’s Michael Brendan Dougherty. We discussed Peter King’s Muslim “radicalization” hearings, the shari’ah conspiracy theory industry, and then digressed on to Newt Gingrich’s patriotic infidelity and how that squares (or not) with his new-found Catholicism. And last — but not least — we chatted about Rob Bell’s possible heresy, a favorite topic here a…
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…”) are not entertaining, nor are the tweets and status updates hurling the latest zingers, looking for easy laughs. But I understand that we all want to be funny on Facebook (and to be “liked”) and that we live in an age when everyone is an armchair therapist. The depths one descends to while in the grip of addiction and its associated pathologies are rightly called “hell” since they constitute a black hole of alienation, torment, and anguish. Fri…
Read MoreA Tennessee lawmaker is leading efforts to introduce the latest anti-evolution strategy into public school science class. I have an article in today’s Scientific American about the proposed legislation, as well as continuing efforts in Texas and Louisiana to water down the teaching of evolution. What makes the Tennessee bill so interesting is that the man who leading the campaign is invoking the name of John Scopes, the science teacher convicted…
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