Religion Dispatches
…time, projects a different posture: actions have consequences. Perhaps the United States, like Earl, must examine its conduct, recognize the web-like nature of human interactions, and acknowledge at least the possibility that the United States as a nation has not lived up to the best of its democratic ideals, has not represented in its internal practices and foreign policies the commitment to freedom that fuels its rhetoric. And, while we’re at it…
Read More…d: …there is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America—there’s the United States of America. After all, even a commitment to argue with each other carries implicit commitment to the nation and its democratic institutions. Civil religion—and the power of civil religious ritual—goes a long way towards explaining the out…
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…k outside the Christian box. When we talk about religious pluralism in the United States, we often mean diverse manifestations of Christianity. Many immigrants, though, are introducing new faith traditions and Asianizing and Latinoizing old ones. They bring very different ideas about what religion is and where to find it. If we care about preserving and deepening religious pluralism in this country, we need to make room for a wider variety of reli…
Read More…e of his birth. Under Shari’ah law, Islamic law, which is not legal in the United States, he was born a Muslim because his father is a Muslim. That’s why [Muammar al-Gaddafi] calls him “my son.” The President has renounced Islam. He says he believes in Jesus Christ. To the Muslim world that’s under Shari’ah law, which we’re not, they see him as a lost son. They see him as a wayward child. Shari’ah law is not legal in the United States. You cannot…
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…nten season when we can cue up a series of Jesus films made outside of the United States, and by so doing realize the plurality of Jesuses—the ways Jesus might be seen outside the Hollywood-dominant framework. I here offer four takes on Jesus films; an updated gospel for the film age, a gospel account that takes into account the various takes on Jesus as prophet and priest, but also as liar, lunatic and/or lord. Indian Blockbuster Jesus Opening ou…
Read More…ce of a “Francis effect” on the Vatican’s resistance to LGBT rights at the United Nations and the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council. In international bodies, the Holy See regularly teams up with groups like Family Watch International and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute as well as groups of Islamic and African nations to oppose any effort to apply human rights language or principles to same-sex relationships, or to extend the def…
Read More…t my feelings—I had felt in my graduate classes. I had just arrived in the United States that summer, and was very unsure of myself. I had much to say, to be sure, but I recall how I struggled to find my thoughts and words in the conversation. I felt like I wanted to speak a different language. For me, the struggle became an issue of how to insert myself into the conversation. How was I to reexamine the very bases of the discourse and then to reex…
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…i-intellectualism of some of his most ardent evangelical supporters in the United States. Schaeffer’s focus on confronting the sinfulness of secular society was later converted by Christian Right leaders (including Tim LaHaye and Pat Robertson) into a set of gothic and aggressive conspiracy theories that would make Stephen King blush. Blumenthal covers this ground adroitly. The depth of Blumenthal’s understanding of Francis Schaeffer is supplemen…
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…antly contribute to the billions of dollars that flow into Uganda from the United States. “Ugandans,” Sharlet suggests, “are only too happy to return the favor, providing for their American allies examples of the policies too extreme to be implemented in the United States.” The bill’s author, Member of Parliament David Bahati and the Ethics Minister, James Buturo are affiliated with The Family. Then there’s Rick Warren. The Saddleback megachurch p…
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…of spirituality as goofy, metaphysical religion has a long history in the United States, reaching back beyond Mesmerism in the eighteenth century and moving forward through Spiritualism, New Thought, Theosophy and New Age spirituality. This type of spirituality, which is often concerned with the movement of energy, therapeutic practices, and the power of mind, seems to be rising in popularity in the United States as traditional religious affiliat…
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