Religion Dispatches
…rades to the site—an enhanced reading experience, better integration with social media, peace on earth. (We’ll be updating via our newsletter, here.) It’s our birthday, but it’s you who deserve the party (and the gluten-free, kosher, vegan, cruelty-free cake). Thank you for reading, for writing, and for your thoughtful and dynamic engagement with the ever-evolving question of religion in public life and culture. Yours, The Eds. …
Read More…ny. One of candidate Obama’s strengths in the first campaign was his ability to invoke these powerful mythic themes (though he was less adept at making them work for him in governing). Let’s hope he’s better able to do it in his second term because the divide has never been clearer: it’s between those who know and celebrate Seneca, Selma, and Stonewall and those who do not….
Read More…havior and unusual but largely harmless traditions is blurred. In the most extreme examples, shining a spotlight on a dangerous religious movement, such as that of Jim Jones or Heaven’s Gate, is not only newsworthy, but a call to give protection and a voice to those who have none. So feel free to serve douse those Cheerios in soy milk or top your pizza with soysage so long as we keep in mind that sloppy reporting doesn’t only damage the credibilit…
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…also challenged the rule. They claimed the rule violated their “religious freedom” because it hampered their Bible study. There was no burden on their religion. They all could have met virtually. They could have studied the Bible on their own. But the pandemic was politicized and they were out to claim their Christian privilege. A three-judge panel—two W. appointees and a Trump appointee—ruled 2-1 that the rule was valid because it treated religi…
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…in religious and educational approaches to the world. Long-term alliances between religious institutions, and the mutual engagement between different forms of expertise, are essential to this paradigm. Steven Prothero rightly has pointed out the profound religious illiteracy of most American citizens, and has called for an educational curriculum that includes the study of religion as a prerequisite for 21st-century citizenship. Even more importan…
Read More…ns of opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day.” In a document [pdf], entitled “Tips for the Last Minute Organizer of Those Whose Administrators Said ‘No,’” students are explicitly told that if a teacher asks them to speak they “do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time.” In schools where permission is deni…
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…Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical, titled Charity in Truth, which criticized free market fundamentalism.” That encyclical included clear and direct criticism of the free-market fundamentalism at the heart of attempts to dismantle financial reform: The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from ‘influences’ of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way. In the long t…
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…prosperity gospel and how it started. The book talks about how, in earlier times, all agency was relegated to the divine. You can’t do anything on your own, everything is up to God’s will. But in the prosperity gospel, the agency starts with the individual. The prosperity gospel focuses on bettering yourself and harnessing the power of the divine in order to reap benefits on earth. A lot of the churches referenced in this book are megachurches. T…
Read More…ss nausea and more plot.) Everyone from Bengalis to Bosnians, basically. Nausea is, well, nausea. The combined term describes what happens when the person next to you in congregational prayers keeps burping up the bad decision that was his iftar (her iftar?—ew), making you feel gross and vomity. (It’s especially bad if you can tell what exactly he ate, and—oh God, the horror—in what order. Hint: Whatever you smell, work backwards chronologically.)…
Read More…was locked up, not because he was suspected of committing a crime, but because he refused to promise that he wouldn’t go near the mosque. (Hey Wayne County, thought crime, much?) The ACLU submitted an amicus curiae brief to the 19th District Court in defense of Jones’ right to protest, which says, “If the First Amendment has any meaning, it is that the government cannot suppress the free speech because it — or anyone else — disagrees with the spee…
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