Religion Dispatches
…s a line pretending it’s a circle. The Occupy movement, of course, doesn’t buy it. If anything, it accuses Wall Street too much of being a line, as if it’s a huge conspiracy in charge of everything, which it isn’t. But in opposition to all things hierarchical, masculine, and mean, #occupy has gone all the way to the other extreme. First, it has protested against any linear, hierarchical apportionment of power. At the extreme end, this leads to soc…
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…housands of people who have been abused by clergy. The public simply won’t buy it, and the end result is that the institutional Roman Catholic Church will look even more out of touch with reality than ever. I generally refrain from commenting on these matters without the document in front of me, but this is such a classic case of how church law is made—yes, like watching sausage being made—that it invites conjecture. It may turn out that the conce…
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…of the tawdriest sort, the kind of remainder-bin book most people sensibly buy for kindling or building walls with. But there’s Lindell nattering away about nearly getting killed over a gambling debt in Mexico as though it were the highlight of his career. Is it a rags-to-riches saga? Is it a story of amazing grace redeeming even the most broken soul? Is it a brag of celebrity friendship with the likes of Jerry Falwell, Jr., despite humble origins…
Read More…the real reason for the Christmas season.” While no one tracks the actual number of baby Jesus thefts every Christmas season, in 2013 nativity robbery and vandalism was reported from California to Minnesota to New Jersey to New York, where the theft was investigated as a possible hate crime. One Boston crèche has been robbed three times in nine years, according to the Boston Globe. A New York security company garnered a bit of publicity by offeri…
Read More…ssons emerge a bit more clearly. First and foremost, people clearly do not buy the rhetoric of “liberation” when their lands continue to be occupied by foreign troops. It’s silly to think they would do otherwise. Second, and equally important, the rhetoric of “liberty and equality” (not to mention “democracy” or “fraternity”) rings hollow in such times to all but the tinniest of occupiers’ ears. In the face of such hypocritical-sounding political…
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…Christians, as he notes, are much more likely than the average citizen to buy the “heritage not hate” shtick about Confederate monuments, and much less likely to agree that the repercussions of slavery and institutionalized racism make it difficult for Blacks to find economic success in the U.S. Importantly, Jones didn’t just ask straightforward questions about race, but found indirect ways to test for perceptions about structural racism. This is…
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…sell both the Bible and a book deliciously skewering the tacky people who buy it. A marketing strategist for white evangelical publishing calls this “Reaching Men by Tribes,” using psychographics to create a market, divide by market, and control Christianity. (Another “tribe” is “Fight Club Church.”) Most offensive to me, a girl born 40 miles south of McMurtry’s Archer City, is the inanity of “Cowboy” and “Church” in the materials for this scheme…
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…hat while I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Jesus, I don’t buy the whole Nicene package. I also say that my faith, such as it is, is really important to me. Am I proselytizing when I say this? I suppose I am, in a way, though I’m fairly certain this isn’t what Chrissy had in mind. Is it offensive? I hope not. What I absolutely never do is peddle false faith-centered comfort to bereaved or traumatized people. To me there’s a bright…
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…hem. For example, in 2004 their Boston College in Massachusetts offered to buy more than 40 acres from the Archdiocese of Boston for over $100 million cash with proceeds going toward settling myriad cases of sexual abuse by clergy members. I see no reason to laud them this time without explicit proof that they actually stood for women in the face of a patriarchal church. It would be a welcome first in my experience and reading of history. In fact,…
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…h Occupy Faith and the Rolling Jubilee campaign, which is raising money to buy and abolish defaulted medical debts. After the talk I lingered for a while, talking with old professors and classmates until hardly anyone was left. I finally approached Ven. Bodhi to introduce myself—we’d been exchanging emails—and to thank him for his social justice work. He was leaving the next day but agreed to an interview. Below is our conversation about Buddhist…
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