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Papal Encyclical Becomes Part of Congressional Record

By Sarah Posner

…ere heady days indeed. Overnight, dissent became a front-burner issue. Any number of episcopal conferences mentioned its possibility and legitimacy. The American bishops in their pastoral letter, “Human Life in Our Day” (Nov. 15, 1968), even laid out the norms for licit dissent. Expression of dissent is in order “only if the reasons are serious and well founded, if the manner of the dissent does not question or impugn the teaching authority of th…

The Reagan Era, Still Going

By Gary Dorrien

…body. Ethicist and historian Gary Dorrien finds very little of Winthrop’s spirit in the never-ending attacks mounted against progressive taxation by today’s Republicans: they all like the “City Upon a Hill” part of Winthrop’s sermon, but they ignore the part about what it takes, values-wise, to deserve that hilltop. —eds. The Reagan era was supposed to have ended in November 2008—killed off by 30 years of flat wages and capitulation to Wall Stree…

The Gospel Gestalt: From Joyful Noise to Whitney Houston

By Douglas Harrison

…l a gospel sensibility. I’ve written in these pages before about gospel as spiritual lingua franca in American culture. This notion is widely dispersed throughout the popular imagination and rests on a belief in gospel music as a universal language of deep spiritual feeling that, paradoxically, derives from and transcends racial history in America (incidentally, I recommend Gerardo Marti’s most recent book, Worship Across the Racial Divide, if you…

Robert George’s Bogus Comparison of Herman Cain to Martha Coakley

By Sarah Posner

…incompatible with a sound understanding of religious freedom (and with the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution’s no-religious-tests clause). That George, considered a leading intellectual framer of religious right ideas, and in particular an alliance of evangelicals and Catholics around his framing of reproductive and LGBT rights as inimical to opponents’ “religious liberty” (as enunciated in the Manhattan Declaration) would take on Cai…

Heaven On Earth: A Non-Hysterical History of Shari’ah

By Haroon Moghul

…a much narrower focus on jihad and terrorism. Considering the Gallup poll numbers, which indicate that the more religious a person claims to be, the less tolerant they are of militancy and violence, how do you explain your moving from how Muslims conceive of Shari’ah to a narrower and more securitized frame of Shari’ah, which seems to exclude many Muslim experiences of Shari’ah outside certain crisis areas, like Pakistan and Afghanistan? Structu…

Methodists Move Toward LGBT Inclusion

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ad of them: We are convinced by the witness of others and are compelled by Spirit and conscience to act. We thank the many United Methodists who have already called for full equality and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the life of the Church. Neither measure goes as far as approving LGBT people for ordination, but the question remains: could this coming UMC General Conference be the tipping point for the Methodists a…

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Catholic ‘Liberal’ Hails Return of Anti-Semitic Group

By Anthea Butler

…. The U.S. nuns, however, who embraced Vatican II and remained true to its spirit while they built schools and hospitals and served the poor, are going to be rewarded for their efforts with years of ‘supervision’ from Rome in order to effect their dependable ‘renewal.’” Put another way, conservative anti-Semites are more valued and welcomed in the Catholic Church than women religious who engage the world through their faith. I think that says ever…

$upport Our $ister$

By Marian Ronan

…about them. First we viewed a new documentary about the sisters, Women and Spirit which tells the amazing story of Catholic sisters’ work in the U.S. since the first of them arrived here in 1727. It’s produced and marketed by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the primary target of Vatican criticism. Then we discussed the current situation facing the sisters and US Catholic women more broadly. A number of us had read in advance t…

Open Letter to Creflo Dollar

By Lerone A. Martin

…church but to return and support their pastor. Perhaps you did this in the spirit of looking out for your friend and clerical colleague. But view this as a parent Reverend Dollar: Would you send YOUR kids back to a summer camp where one of the key officials was shrouded in the “wreckage” of sexual abuse? Or would you keep your kids home that summer? Would you send YOUR kids back to a mentoring program where the leading mentor privately settle…

Ross Douthat’s Rosy Old-Time Religion

By Jerome E. Copulsky

…t not to sympathize a bit with Douthat’s critique of contemporary American spirituality, even if he has a penchant for the low-hanging fruit. But this heretical American spiritual seeking is not really anything new, of course. For generations, Americans have been a religiously promiscuous people, attracted to all forms of non-orthodox beliefs and practices. What Douthat sees may be more of a hastening than a transformation. Moreover, we should pay…