Religion Dispatches
…le for a human future in the face of environmental collapse and resurgent tribalism is, in very fact, the final conflict. In short, I think we have about 30 years left to get it right. A fragmented left lacking any unifying vision isn’t going to get the job done….
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…sexual orientation – and my physical person. To me it’s like saying I love left-handers but hate their left-handedness – which also, oddly enough, was once seen as a sin by many Bible believers, but has since been relegated to the theological dust heap. Go figure. But, Reitan asserts that he is convinced that the “‘love the sinner/hate the sin’ precept is one of the most fundamental guiding principles of the Christian life.” At this point, I was w…
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…y speaking, from northern India) is supposedly descended from an Iraqi who left Mesopotamia around 1250. In Indo-Islamic culture, among others, we have shajaras, literally (family) trees. That’s how we know. This fortunate ancestor (being Arab) spoke Arabic, so he found employment in the service of the Delhi Sultans, and the family line was from then on inseparable from Islamic law, arts and letters, and judgeships. They managed to make a decent l…
Read More…f the (various) religious lefts. Your edited book, Voices of the Religious Left, is one way to move the voice of the progressive religious forward, as is Whose Torah? Any thoughts on the future place of progressive religion in the U.S. and beyond? I have enjoyed watching the Democratic Party recognize the importance of progressive religious communities to their agenda and giving us the recognition and support we need. Faith-based is no longer exc…
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…is a threat to that system. People stuck in the system can see that you’ve left and are happy—perhaps happier. And that is threatening. That’s why we see so many snide comments from religious leaders chastising deconstructionists (I won’t link to them here, in my love letter, but they’re not hard to find. I’m not out to court controversy, but to offer support). “Faith over fear” is a phrase we hear a lot these days. But how can a faith be strong i…
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…ns of dollars from their emptied bank accounts, dropped out of school, and left their jobs in order to warn others of the impending destruction. On the morning of May 22, the credulity of Camping’s followers left them to be derided or pitied, and Camping himself allowed that he was “flabbergasted.” The apocalypse didn’t come. In the minds of many, they simply had been duped. But this is only part of the story; specifically, the Western part of the…
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…y apocalyptic Christians who believe there are very few “true Christians”’ left in an age of “decline”). To make his case for righteous anger, Farrington pointed to the example of the prophet Elijah who, according to the Bible, had the prophets of Baal slaughtered after defeating them in a contest of divine power. Farrington then made the dominionist assertion, “I must take responsibility as a Christian for the territory that I’m in, for that atmo…
Read More…o “cure” gays, and her crazy talk, but she is the real deal in terms of an evangelical who can give her testimony. Bachmann’s testimony yesterday gave her narrative about being a sinner, getting saved, and watching Francis Schaeffer’s iconic film, How Then Shall We Live, with her then-boyfriend, Marcus Bachmann. She fluidly quoted scriptures and talked poignantly about her miscarriages and her heart for children. Bachmann ended with a short reflec…
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