Religion Dispatches
…tivists, such as the organizers of the April 6th movement, but there is no official board, party or group that decides on behalf of the demonstrators. How would you present this revolt or uprising to American readers? First, I would like to stress that it’s a revolution, not just an uprising. I would also like to emphasize that politics in Egypt is no longer the simple binary of Government versus Muslim Brotherhood, but that there is a third way…
Read More…course those who would not tell the truth about him,” said the White House official, who would not speak for attribution. “There are folks who have a misunderstanding of the president’s faith and who repeat that misunderstanding.” Joel Hunter, one of the president’s evangelical allies, is equally mild: “He needs to openly declare himself a Christian and not settle for people’s skepticism at that point,” said Hunter, who leads an evangelical church…
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…nceived advertising stunt, set off buzz and worry such that this Sunday an official correction was issued from the company. “We recently issued a press release on Zodiac signs and accident rates, which led to some confusion around whether astrological signs are part of the underwriting process,” the statement reads. “Astrological signs have absolutely no role in how we base coverage and set rates. Rating by astrology would not be actuarially soun…
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…re-sister was in Czechoslovakia). I fear they will be co-opted by the same officials who now denounce them. Already the churchmen use them. Instead of ignoring the women and letting the chips call where they may, Roman officials have found that by excommunicating women priests they have a convenient way to distract from the criminal activity of priest pedophiles and bishops who covered up their crimes. Note that while every woman priest has been e…
Read More…culum. Because they are not subject to the same formal adoption process as official textbooks, supplemental materials used in local school districts could rely on some seriously dubious source matter. (Discovery Institute material, perhaps?) Expect the battles over this issue to take place in Texas and Louisiana. Well, last week, the Foundation for Thought and Ethics appeared on a list of publishers who plan to submit supplementary materials for r…
Read More…you’ll never hear that verse cited. And with good reason. The changing of official, Church-authored chapter headings in the Book of Mormon signifies a contemporary LDS decertification (from the top of the food chain in Salt Lake City!) of the arcane folk belief that dark skin signifies accursedness. I found that significant when I wrote about it last week, and I still do. Baby steps? Absolutely. Will the Church change the text of the Book of Morm…
Read More…Media Companies to help women ease their financial anxieties. A cheery website offers articles, webinars, social networking forums, and promotional videos featuring Deseret Media executive (and former LDS Church official) Shari Dew with 1980s-style stock footage of apparently independent women jogging, counting money, and sitting at their kitchen tables with their children. And all of this about 30 years after the LDS Church helped torpedo the Eq…
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…y outside forces to suppress or manipulate him and who targeted an elected official for assassination. But unpacking Zeitgeist may be more interesting than for understanding Loughner. The movement has a following, and unknown numbers — perhaps millions — of people have watched the films. It’s fringey but it garners a write-up in the Times or the Huffington Post, as if it’s just another interesting movement of people who believe our social structur…
Read More…up Aish HaTorah, although Ronn Torossian, the group’s spokesperson, denied official involvement. (Torossian represents other right-wing religious individuals and organizations; after the Washington Post hired Christian right lawyer-activist Jordan Sekulow as a blogger last month, Politico’s Ben Smith reported that Torossian, a “frequent Gawker target,” repeatedly pitched reporters with Sekulow’s implausible expertise in a wide variety of subjects….
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…the public eye in recent weeks. The governor was one of the few government officials willing to speak out forcefully and publicly; not only about the trumped up case against Aasia Bibi (who was accused by neighbors with whom she was involved in other disputes at the time of the accusation) but also about the need to reform the blasphemy laws instituted during the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq from 1977-1988. The blasphemy laws (Penal…
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