Religion Dispatches
…ir of the 21st century. This connection has been brilliantly drawn in a recent book by Carol K. Winkler, In the Name of Terrorism: Presidents on Political Violence in the Post World War 2 Era. Drawing on extensive pre-9/11 research in a number of presidential libraries before they were closed to free public scrutiny, Winkler demonstrates how the language of “terror” has been a free-wheeling presidential signifier, easily exploited to justify any w…
Read More
…extremism. Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to introduce House Resolution 396, which would: recognize the atrocities committed against Hindus and others during the 1971 war of liberation, as well protect Bangladesh’s Hindus and other minorities from ongoing violence mandate religious freedom and human rights be at the forefront of the U.S. relationship with Bangladesh While the resolution is un…
Read More
…e anti-vice organizations he collaborated with, confiscated and burned thousands upon thousands of books and persecuted authors and vendors. These censorious actions were points of pride in the 19th century, so much so that they were emblazoned on the emblem of The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. But Anthony Comstock and his ilk weren’t just targeting the written word; they also targeted information, medicine, and devices that might…
Read More
…ticle highlighting the leadership of American Catholic bishops in the Catholic schools not only doesn’t mention the Sisters of Charity; the words “Catholic Sisters” never appear at all, though without the near-free labor of hundreds of thousands of them, there simply would never have been Catholic schools. Our times are more similar to the times of “Dagger John” than Archbishop Dolan perhaps realizes….
Read More…. We can’t go down that path again. “I’m running to be a leader for all Kansans, so that we can continue our legacy as a Free State, where discrimination and bigotry – against anyone – is not tolerated.” Why is this so good (or at least why am I so excited by it)? Let me count the ways: It’s true. Check the Holland site for the citations, which are difficult to refute. Lou Engle has horrible politics. Brownback should have his judgment questioned…
Read More…— free exercise of religion, that in order for a law to violate somebody’s free exercise, it has to impinge — substantially burden — their religious practice. And there is no substantial burden on Catholics’ religious practice by providing coverage — insurance coverage for contraception for other people. No one is making Catholics who do not want contraception to take it. No one is making the bishops take it, and so it’s not really a First Amendme…
Read More
…clouds with a bunch of esoteric, lofty propositions about some God way up in heaven, we begin on the ground, in the trenches, amid the dirt and grime of our everyday earthly lives? What if, rather than saying, “God is A, B, and C” and trusting the trickle-down sanctification of free-market theism to make us good people, we say, “I want to be X, Y, and Z,” and then seek out the spiritual principles that are most likely to produce the results we ar…
Read More
…world as Unger did. Spiritualism returned in the form of the “New Age” and free love made a comeback. The American way of life that so many conservative Christians were attached to was threatened. Not surprisingly, demons returned with a vengeance. This crisis was channeled into films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen, catalyzing this fear around an imagined source: shadowy cults lorded over by the Devil and aided by demonic forces…
Read More