Religion Dispatches
…d she was correct and given a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. This continued on for a while, each boy or girl getting candy for their “correct” answers, as their parents smiled proudly at them. The man leading the class told the kids that they were very smart, but they had to remember their lessons. Because someday, you’re going to be in science class, he said, and “your teacher’s going to lie to you.”…
Read More…Panama City, where the Muslim community is starkly divided along race and class lines. Lebanese Muslims work predominately as businesspeople in the lucrative Free Trade Zone, one of the largest free trade ports in the world. In the city center, many residents are descendants of West Indian laborers on the Panama Canal throughout the twentieth century. The city has one of the highest rates of poverty in the country. Every year, a group of black Mu…
Read More…hia Dunbar, who opposes public education, has said, “the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will become the philosophy of the government in the next.” But what I found most fascinating about the piece is the explanation behind the religious right’s recent interest in the Declaration of Independence. Christian activists like David Barton (who served as a curriculum advisor to the TBOE) have been campaigning to shift the focus from the Co…
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…. All this is meant to harden Americans in general, but specifically Black Americans, to their subhuman class. The trauma of historically being relegated to a subhuman class can manifest itself through 14 generations. No matter how callous we become to our individual trauma, our grandparents’ and our parents’ trauma (especially) can continue to impact us in profound ways unless we take steps to heal. There is a tender spot on every callous. Therap…
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…, the vast majority will choose religion. “I’m trying to change mainstream American belief with religion and science,” he said. “I’m hoping to recast the debate between science and religion into one between one religion and a lot of religions.” But ending what he described as the “silliness?” “I don’t think we’re ever going to bridge that divide,” he said. “They honestly believe that if their kids accept evolution, they’re going to hell. And they…
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…ular people to remain locked in their “ivory tower” abstractions. A Master Class on Being Human: A Black Christian and a Black Secular Humanist on Religion, Race, and Justice Anthony Pinn & Brad Braxton Beacon Press July, 2023 PINN: I agree. There are many issues that must be addressed, and we need a language of life—a grammar of compassion—robust enough to harness justice work. But I don’t think we find this in scripture. We need source material…
Read More…at the computer and I hear a Grandmother in the Senior Adult Sunday School class that meets in the Sanctuary say “Speaking of people, have ya’ll seen that video about the population growth?” I remember biting my lip — hard. I remember sighing and feeling as though I visibly shrank behind my laptop. As she described the content I could see the wrinkled faces contort in shades of fear and disgust. And I could feel my inner Scully and Mulder rise up…
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…to codify Christian privilege and elevate Christians to a special, favored class. All others will be second-class citizens. As Chrissy Stroop noted in her Religion Dispatches piece on the SOTU, these ideas have been mainstreamed due to the influence of the radical Christian Reconstructionist movement. Right now, Christian nationalists are raging against the dying of their privilege. Trump’s State of the Union encapsulated this rage. And, as Americ…
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…of performative wokeness. What Isabel Wilkerson accurately describes as an American caste system is very good at making itself invisible. And yet without an awakening to this toxic inheritance on the part of millions of whites, we will never be able to organize our way to a better plan for living together on a fragile planet. So enough with the binaries: it’s not culture or politics; it’s not race or class; and it’s definitely not a choice between…
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…s like music therapy to improve moods and aid in recuperation. 13. Half of American Socialism President Obama’s dad was a Muslim. So we get like 50% credit right? “Irony” by Caelen Walker 14. Irony The word for alcohol comes from Arabic, which is awesome since Muslims aren’t supposed to drink or sell alcohol. Or, rather, al-cohol, I should say. One possible reason an Arabic word is used to describe a beverage the majority of Arabs are not supposed…
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