Religion Dispatches
…ican governors rejected federal money for Medicaid expansion. The result? Harvard and CUNY researchers say the death toll from 25-state ‘opt-out’ may be as high as 17,100 annually; hundreds of thousands more will be harmed by depression, untreated diabetes, and skipping mammograms and pap smears. Who were the victims of these Republicans? Fast food workers, nursing aides, restaurant servers, child-care workers, and the hospitals that serve the poo…
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…s and different “waves” of Pentecostalism, the significance of “Spiritual Warfare,” and more. – eds ### How did you first become interested in reporting on the rise of Pentecostalism? My interest came about entirely by accident. A few years ago, I stumbled on the “John school” movement—faith-based remedial programs for guys caught soliciting prostitutes. Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World Elle Hardy Hurst, 2021 Th…
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…have contributed to their own lack of political efficacy in the public square, part of conservatism’s recent ascendancy can be explained by way of the religious left’s self-imposed ban from the public square. Far from being an aberration, recent conservative victories on the legislative level speak to an ongoing plan to remake the country from the top down instead of solely from the bottom up. That’s the endgame and, unfortunately, those on the r…
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…s marriage in violent terms and takes the metaphor of political debate as warfare to an alarmist level. Elaborating on a purported forty-year “master plan” by homosexual activists to “utterly destroy the family,” Dobson compares the push for equal marriage rights in America to Hitler’s military conquest of Europe: Like Adolf Hitler, who overran his European neighbors, those who favor homosexual marriage are determined to make it legal, regardless…
Read More…stor Burpo in real life spun the straw of Colton’s scanty “visions” into a fair amount of gold, what about the rest of the “hard working Americans” in Imperial, Nebraska? What about us all? We just have cool it down here, work really hard for little to no reward, and wait for an icky greeting-card-bland heaven? Not being a Protestant, perhaps I don’t understand the allure of this movie, but “inspiring” isn’t the adjective that springs to mind. Tha…
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…of public service prior to 2008, John McCain’s speeches are models of secular aridity. He doesn’t just occasionally speak of God or faith or America’s Christian promise; he never does. Indeed, John McCain does not like to talk about religion. “I’m unashamed and unembarrassed about my deep faith in God,” he has said, “But I do not obviously try to impose my views on others.” When pressed, McCain has been known to snap back to interrogating reporter…
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…e after we have separated materialistic prejudice from scientific fact.’” Barbara Forrest, who as an expert witness for Dover’s plaintiffs so damningly exposed intelligent design’s creationist roots, says McLeroy’s position has evolved in keeping with creationists’ latest strategy. His is merely relying on what Forrest calls the “code words.” But their long-term goals remain the same: To get God into science class. The full statement in the Texas…
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…ribalism, still runs deep. And as religion has everything to do with this particular form of insanity, religion is where we should look, both to gauge the scope of the problem and to scan for possible pathways to sanity. The Old Religion of Whiteness Persists in New Forms The distinctly American hierarchical system, the comprehensive system of economic and social control that James Lawson tellingly refers to as “plantation capitalism,” has long b…
Read More…the strong reaction people have is not with polygamy per se, but with how little separation there is between polygamy and the way we live now. The liberal-minded among us believe that adults should be able to create the family structure of their choice, but so often, because polygamy arises from a deeply patriarchal system, those same liberal-minded folks will condemn it out of hand. The more conservative among us are no doubt a little unnerved b…
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…gender Christian. The thing is, though, that I’m too ambiguous to claim a particular, standardized identity, and I really have no desire to correct assumptions that people shouldn’t be making about me in the first place. I don’t want to have to be the person to let my parents know about the variability of gender and sexuality, I don’t want to have conversations with judgmental people that make me uncomfortable, and I don’t want to invite my family…
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