Religion Dispatches
…thout that context, is motivated by the same essence for me: Allah made me free and equal and anyone who dares to limit that freedom or curtail my equality has no right to do so. They also have no control over my choice to live that equality and justice, save for oppression. The Qur’an is pretty emphatic about that: oppression is human-made and must be human-eradicated. I reject anything and anyone who interferes with my choice and my right to liv…
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…mental health challenge as part of one’s life. I wanted to emphasize that freedom is often hard-won. The final chapter is now named “Free.” How do you feel about the cover? Initially, I resisted having my face on the cover of the book. When the publishers presented the idea to me, I gave them a list of all the memoirs without the author’s face on the cover. They gave me a comparable list of memoirs that have the author’s face on the cover. Betwee…
Read More…d mid-November. You can watch the first session of the seminar on-line for free here. But I already have done that for you. Gothard promotes an integrated world and life view drawn from the Bible, which he claims speaks to all areas of life. Especially prominent are his views on financial matters and marriage and family matters. For example, Gothard teaches that debt is unbiblical and “a hidden judgment of God; debt is always a judgment.” He cla…
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…racist—Donald John Trump—as well as the exoneration of all who aided and abetted him—echoes the all-too-familiar experience of having to watch abusive white cops and other white terrorists walk free despite compelling evidence of wrongdoing. As in the case of the Senate’s vote on Saturday, white killers get to walk even when there is superabundant visual proof—in the form of videos and photographs—of murderous atrocities committed. Only an invest…
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…e very survival of minority communities. As MASGD puts it, “none of us are free until all of us are free.” To get a sense of what motivates MASGD’s activism, particularly in the current political atmosphere, I interviewed four pioneers of the American LGBT Muslim movement: Faisal Alam, Urooj Arshad, Raquel E. Saraswati, and Tynan Power. These leaders are members of MASGD’s Steering Committee, and were gracious enough to discuss with me their appre…
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…slow and gradual change, and stand united against radical attempts to bring it swiftly. But that’s not their true face. Conservatism in practice is a radical ideology reserving the right to betray its stated principles, and to betray community and brotherhood, if it doesn’t get what it wants. Thanks to Jerry Falwell Jr., that’s now easy to see….
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…battle against the contraceptive mandate dealt more in falsehoods and hysteria than facts or the nuances of Catholic moral theology. Ironically, it took freeing Notre Dame from the mandate for it to realize it had been free all along….
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…oting a pro-abortion ideology. And, in the type of take-no-prisoners, fact-free rhetoric that has become all-to-familiar in the age of Trump, anti-Girl Scout activists have spread the rumor that the proceeds of sales of Girl Scout cookies go to fund Planned Parenthood. The national Girl Scouts organization says it takes no position and provides no materials on issues of human sexuality, abortion or contraception, and has no relationship with Plann…
Read More…ast, all of this comes along with a generous, constructive alternative: “a Free State, where discrimination and bigotry – against anyone – is not tolerated.” That’s not weak whining about Democrats having values too, nor pleading for civil discussion. It’s an alternative: you can have Sam Brownback or you can have a governor who will “protect the rights of every Kansan.” Your choice. I have no idea if this will work. Holland’s campaign probably sh…
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…. Prosperity gospel, for instance, only makes logical sense in a system of free-market capitalism. Those core American ideals have come under assault in very public ways when measured against the yardstick of liberation theology and faith-based social justice initiatives. By Tuesday afternoon, August 29, news sources were reporting that Lakewood Church had been opened as a shelter. There were unverified pictures circulating on Twitter of blow-up m…
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