Religion Dispatches
…sounds like a medieval monk who’s just woken up and encountered the modern world: For, in the past (but only in the past?) women had to fight to exercise their professions or take on decisional roles that appeared to be exclusively meant for the male world. So the areas of reflection are extended throughout the different cultures, they transform and present themselves with different accents, sometimes becoming entwined with political and strongly…
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…tical labels are probably beyond the point. What is the point is that this world is ruled by a satanic conspiracy. Though she would certainly not phrase it this way, Satan is Christine Weick’s god. He is the prime mover of her universe. Weick searches through the flotsam of our postmodern consumerist world for signs of his presence. It is comforting, even pleasurable, to find signs. We love realizing there is an arrow hidden in the FedEx logo, or…
Read More…ty and Southern Baptist leaders develops in the coming months, if it does. Russell Moore may have not had this level of conversation in mind when he called for congregations and individuals to seek to understand who LGBT persons are and why they think the way they do. Now it’s up to him to demonstrate exactly what that process should look like and to enter into face-to-face conversations with those who have respectfully responded to his call for m…
Read More…a lot of time for reflection on foreign policy and human nature. But the truth is, as Americans concerned with ISIS we’re fundamentally safe. So while the insight offered by The Walking Dead may be a luxury most of us can afford only when our survival isn’t in question—one of the central tensions in the series, incidentally—the truth is, since Americans are more likely to be killed by their falling TV or furniture (or lightning or a cop or a dog…
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…Muslim youth from Britain, the US, and other Western countries, like the cruel executioner who appears in the YouTube videos of the beheadings of foreign journalists and aid workers who, according to some authorities is believed to be a 23-year old former rapper from West London. The young men who are lured to ISIS join for a variety of motives. Perhaps the strongest is the desire to be involved in a great war, a cosmic struggle that allows them…
Read More…third murder planned before he was apprehended, all reportedly related to grudges the perpetrator held rather than ideological commitments. Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups like Operation Rescue frequently employ convicted felons like Cheryl Sullenger, and several land themselves on domestic terror lists. It would be unfair and inaccurate to claim that opposing abortion automatically makes a group violent, but to deny the ongoing history of that vi…
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…adox led me to think that what we’re asking of DNA is more than just the “truth” of it (and truth in quotes because there are lots of things that are provisional about the technology). What does DNA add? I think it can add a deeper sense of history. If you’re doing genetic ancestry testing—bracketing for a moment the veracity of the test—what these inferences provide can often be long histories. For people that have no information at all, some Afr…
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…right-wing Christian dogmatist can buy and sell from her kitchen table. And that’s likely to be the case going forward, which is perhaps the best news anyone outside the world of social conservatism could hope for….
Read More…ns and his ilk often make for far more controversial sound bites and viral videos being circulated through social media. Nuanced arguments from the left don’t translate well in our ADHD-afflicted media, social or otherwise. What the more liberal Christians need to pay attention to here, and challenge through that media megaphone—if you can stop thinking about sex for just one minute—is the FRC’s absolute and total hypocrisy on the issue of welfare…
Read More…adulterer or an alcoholic, or a thief, or a liar—or a maker of bad parody videos. Which is, of course, the sin committed here, both in filmmaking and theology. As theologians without agendas have long pointed out, there are large differences between homosexuality and, say, adultery in that adultery, by its very nature, breaks covenants and does often irreparable—mental, spiritual and sometimes physical—harm to those involved. Homosexuality, with…
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