Religion Dispatches
…er, while the angry rich fight for their pelf, in part by creating a whole new underground political strike force. In their important new book, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that Devolution # 1 is actually caused in many ways by Devolution #2: i.e., a wealth-dominated politics greatly accelerates widening inequality and does not simply flow from the “natural” accumulation of wealth at the top. This is the vicious circle we…
Read More…s no more complexity, there is no more discussion. We have become shallow, Republicans, Catholics and Jews.” As Rabbis Raymond A. Zwerin and Richard J. Shapiro write in a piece for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, according to Jewish law, “a fetus is not considered a full human being and has no juridical personality of its own.” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America [now T’ruah: The Rabbinic…
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…o want to live by the traditional virtues, MacIntyre said, have to pioneer new ways of doing so in community. We await, he said “a new — and doubtless very different — St. Benedict.” Throughout the early Middle Ages, Benedict’s communities formed monasteries, and kept the light of faith burning through the surrounding cultural darkness. Eventually, the Benedictine monks helped refound civilization. I believe that orthodox Christians today are call…
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…sections of religion and popular culture, I also looked forward to Perry’s new film because I wanted to see how his theological message of hope and faith would sustain his new efforts to address a global concern: the financial crisis. But the centralizing of the white family—which is a departure from Perry’s traditional filmic presentation—not only distanced Perry from his usual target audience of African Americans, it placed large servings of par…
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…verage, nor would the bishops’ conference. It’s important to note that the new HHS requirements do not require Catholic hospitals to provide these services to patients or employees, who would need to go elsewhere to get them. They simply require that they be included in the health plan the employer offers and that, as with other services in the plan that carry no co-pay, they too are offered without a co-pay. Catholic hospitals are explicitly exem…
Read More…cilities, this will be more attractive to young people.” The building of a new mosque near New York’s Ground Zero is becoming a political football in that state’s governor’s race. Discrimination is also a problem for Satanists—or, for one particular Satanist, at least. Irving Davis, a convicted murderer, argues that his conviction be thrown out because his foray into Satanism should not have been revealed to the jury. Hearing the appeal, Judge Mic…
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…at ordered the flag to be taken down in 2015. Haley was hailed as one of a new Republican generation of leaders from the South—leaders who came without the racist baggage of the past. This wishful thinking would be short lived. Four years later, when she was serving as ambassador to the UN in the Trump administration, Haley reverted course once again on the Confederate flag, claiming in a CNN interview that its legacy was pristine before the murde…
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…and the priest towards the transcendent. It is almost entirely unlike the new Mass with its greater focus on interaction, mutuality, community, and its consequent admission of more of the quotidian world into the act of worship. For some of those who spent a lifetime committed to the Latin Mass, its absence in those dioceses most committed to reform must have been a sharp disappointment. Mass at St. Joan of Arc It’s possible that Church authoriti…
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…uld be considered nonsectarian. The results of the study, presented in the new report Reading, Writing & Religion II: Texas Public School Bible Courses in 2011-12, were decidedly mixed. On the one hand, eleven school districts did quite well, offering courses that were careful not to promote one religious perspective over all others, and which encouraged critical thinking, careful communication skills, and creativity. Twenty-eight districts had co…
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…entic” religion and popular, secular practice. In Sweat Equity: Inside the New Economy of Mind and Body, journalist Jason Kelly traces the connections between money and fitness culture. He recently spoke with The Cubit about running highs, meditation apps, and the inherent difficulty of selling authenticity. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You argue that Millennials treat fitness—and especially group fitness classes—as an al…
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