Religion Dispatches
…t gays should be allowed to get married in the Mormon temple. That was the wrong thing to say. My entire life I had always relied on being sort of vague when interviewed. Interview questions are usually pretty direct, and I can truthfully answer them all. But I don’t go into detail. It’s like “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” But he wanted me to get more specific. I had to open up, and it became clear that I disagreed with the Church on a doctrinal issue. H…
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…Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense because he was “wrong on gay rights,” “wrong on Iran,” and “wrong on Israel.” The assumption underpinning the ad was that Hagel was unsuited to defend the country because he was too lenient toward Iran’s Islamic extremism and too harsh toward Israel, America’s closest ally and the supposed beacon of gay rights in the Middle East. These are just three antecedents to the coupling of Islamophobia with muscular pro-…
Read More…doctrine and not so much on free thinking. This is where Christianity goes wrong, because they drill into the heads of clergy that it’s wrong to ask questions, and that it’s an abomination to allow, or encourage, your congregation to ask questions. To be fair, this thinking infects the more liberal seminaries as well. Once, in a classroom full of future clergypersons, I found myself excited by the new and eye-opening things we had been learning ab…
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…an end to the discrimination of atheists. As Prophet John reflects, “It is wrong to judge people just because they do not share your religion. It is wrong to judge within a religion, as some Christians currently do.” Even though they already have tax exempt status under the IRS guidelines for a church, in May the UCB applied for 501(c)3, or non-profit, status. Unlike some parody churches such as Landover Baptist Church or activist outreach efforts…
Read More…morality of abortion, with half (50%) saying having an abortion is morally wrong and 46% saying it is morally acceptable. Among Americans age 65 and older 57% say abortion is morally wrong, and 31% say it is morally acceptable. In addition, millenials (49%) are more likely to say that abortion is not a sin than the general population is (44%), and more likely than all other age groups to say it’s not a sin. They are also more likely to say abortio…
Read More…issue of gay marriage may be turning into more of a hindrance to success than an ally. Land and others would do well to listen to this faction. Those who used religion to support slavery, the subjugation of women, and the separation of the races all wound up on the wrong side of history. Bentzen reminds them they’re headed down that same road now: The consequence of their reaction to the recent ruling is that conservatives may be planting the seed…
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…ry bad mistakes, and we were shocked. We had tried to teach him right from wrong,” that “each one of our family members drew closer to God,” and that they “pray that as people watch our lives they see that we are not a perfect family.” But the Duggars and their supporters have very deliberately marketed them as a perfect family—or if not perfect, at least pure, and in particular, sexually pure. The first episode of their “reality” television show…
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…ica needs to keep its allies happy better than dying because you’re in the wrong religion, or pray in the wrong way? I don’t know, but I don’t imagine it makes all that difference. I imagine it wouldn’t to you, either, if your loved ones were being killed, oppressed, dispossessed and so on and so forth. That our victims are largely Muslim is important, but not central to these conflicts. At least, not to us. And it’s not about religion per se. We…
Read More…lity and secular morality.” (page 252) “As fallible human beings we can be wrong about a lot of things but we cannot be wrong in how we feel about someone else. At the same time, Christianity emphasized that free choice should also be binding choice. As we have consented to marry without coercion, we should live up to our vows and preserve marriage as a lifelong commitment.” (page 60) “Christianity did not contest patriarchy, but it elevated the s…
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…. And once that happens, that’s all you are. I personally think Sarsour is wrong about some of the things she says about American Jews and Israel. Accusing someone of being mistaken invites conversation and exchange. But the label antisemite makes such engagement forbidden, or at least futile, because it’s not an error in judgment but a state of being. You cannot repudiate an antisemite’s antisemitism and still hold that s/he has done good things…
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