Religion Dispatches
…d: Rachel Barenblat Congregation Beth Israel, North Adams MA Joanna Brooks San Diego State University Sharon Brous IKAR Linell Cady Arizona State University John Caputo Syracuse University Rachel Cowan George Mason University, Gary Dorrien Union Theological Seminary Eddie Glaude Princeton University Harry Knox Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Ira Lapidus University of California at Berkeley Khalid Latif New York University Kathryn Lofto…
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…ous relationship by creating opportunities for dialogue at all times.” Brazil: President Slows Anti-Discrimination Bill in Deference to Evangelicals Last Friday, Brazilian lawmakers shelved a law that would have prohibited discrimination or inciting violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, reports Dan Littauer at LGBTQ Nation. He reports that the country’s minister of institutional relations instructed ruling party senato…
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…th local churches. In addition to Graham, the Association also sponsored a number of “associate evangelists,” including Howard Jones, Ralph Bell and Leighton Ford. The Association published Decision magazine, and Graham’s syndicated column, “My Answer,” appeared in newspapers across the nation. Politics By his own account, Graham enjoyed close relationships with American presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama (even though Graham met wi…
Read More…t recent revelation comes after comments he made at a working class church San Cirillo Allessandro, on the outskirts of Rome on the first Sunday of Advent. According to L’Osservatore Romano, the Pope told parishioners he had once been a bouncer, but that his work later in life teaching psychology and literature taught him how to get people back into the church. No surprise then, that Pope Francis is punching high and low at his internal and extern…
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…esperson, it could do no better than Churchland. A professor emerita at UC San Diego, Churchland pioneered the field of “neurophilosophy,” which, as the name implies, dwells at the interface between neuroscience and philosophy. Touching a Nerve offers a tour of this intersection, and Churchland meanders through the brain’s fleshy folds with a welcoming enthusiasm. At each stop (including but not limited to: free will, sex, sleep, morality, LSD, an…
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…al from the denomination and its $8.89 million payoff to the Presbytery of San Francisco. Such eye-popping settlements reflect the PCUSA trust clause concerning church property (and California property values). As our Book of Order puts it, all property is held in trust “for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)”—even a newly built building in Bathgate, population 43. As if theological disagreements are not fraught enough, PCUSA c…
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…Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality from Emerson to Oprah (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); Schmidt and Sally Promey, eds.,American Religious Liberalism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012); Courtney Bender, The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010); Kathryn Lofton in Oprah: Gospel of an Icon(Berkeley: University of California, 2011); Mat…
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…he nor Colin Kaepernick, another vocally Christian quarterback who led the San Francisco 49ers to the 2013 Superbowl, have been embraced by white Christians the way Tebow, Warner, and other white athletes have. This is perhaps exemplified by a Christianity Today piece in which editor Mark Galli talks up Tebow’s “humble and morally upright” public persona while denigrating Kaepernick’s “pride” and dismissing his tattoos of Bible verses as “designed…
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…riend of mine linked to this article by Stephen Smith of the University of San Diego. In a nutshell, Dr. Smith’s article makes the point that the discussion on gay marriage has inappropriately focused on the issue of “equality” and should redirect its attention to the definition of “marriage.” As one can deduce from, say, the strategic placement of this link in paragraph 14, the implicit argument is that marriage is best defined as a one-man-one-w…
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…much beyond that. “Do I pray? Sure, you could call it that,” a woman from San Diego who described herself as “almost an atheist” told me. She continued: I sit quietly every so often during the week. I try to calm my thinking. Sometimes I’m hoping for something for myself or someone else, but I don’t have to be. I think that’s what most people mean by “prayer.” It’s not so much about “talking to God” or “saving your soul.” It’s just about settling…
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