Religion Dispatches
…illed in the Second Lebanon War has embittered him against the state. In a New York Times op-ed, Israeli novelist Amos Oz was also critical of the attack, writing that: For 2,000 years, the Jews knew the force of force only in the form of lashes to our own backs. For several decades now, we have been able to wield force ourselves—and this power has, again and again, intoxicated us. … Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip and Monday’s violent intercepti…
Read More…front of them have adjusted accordingly. George’s fellow culture warrior, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was as least as bombastic about the contraception mandate and same-sex marriage, is singing a different tune these days. He greeted the news that a gay group has been given long-sought permission to march in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade as if nothing would make him happier. He told the Boston Globe’s John Allen that the days of th…
Read More…how the guru feels about NCAA recruitment violations. Bernice King left Eddie Long’s church in the wake of Long settling his scandal out of court. Texas is ridding public school graduations of prayers and religious terminology. In New York, a federal court ruled that the City of New York could block congregations from using public school buildings for Sunday worship services. Finally, religious leaders want baseball players to know that Jesus wou…
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…hard and put up wet?” I recently published a portion of that stuff in the New York Times. And we had a lot of debates about whether I could include that. Really? We eventually decided I could include that—because it was a reference to equestrian sports. [He laughs] Really. If we were very insistent that there was no sexual innuendo whatsoever… Certainly not! Just a saddle used and put away! It’s about the mainstream media and the things that it’s…
Read More…ing the government to decide, again, what is or is not a religion? Yes. In New York, atheists may be on the approved list. In Florida, they are precisely not just another sect. The Board of Commissioners in Brevard County, Florida, recently voted unanimously not to allow a representative of the Central Florida Freethought Community to give an invocation. Such invocations are “…presented by members of our faith community….The prayer is delivered du…
Read More…families. The use of public schools for services may now be off-limits in New York City, but the use of other public spaces to help spread the gospel is thriving. Reminiscent of the coffeehouse churches that preceded them (which apparently were what lured the founders of Bronx Household of Faith to New York City in the first place), the theaters and the bars and the concert halls are not just cool and comfortable new spots to worship, but they ar…
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…. This fall, he has been working to thwart new aid-in-dying legislation in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as a referendum in Colorado (which ultimately passed). In this effort, he is clearly trying to position himself as the antithesis to Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old Californian, diagnosed with the same cancer as Hanson, who died in 2014 shortly after appearing on the cover of People magazine under the headline “My Decision to Die.” H…
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…mon’s book Wagner writes, “Just as the 1980s was a decade initiating the renewal of the Biblical gift and the office of prophet, the 1990s is shaping up to be the decade in which God is renewing the gift and office of apostle.” Hamon had previously identified the 1950s as the decade of the evangelist; the 1960s as the decade of pastors; and the 1970s as the decade of teachers. Following this gradual introduction, the church’s capacity for the five…
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…n the Trump White House were strategizing with” the prayer warriors of the New Apostolic Reformation in the days leading up to it. At the not-so-subtly named National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance in February, Trump ally and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson joined with religious leaders to “bind the demonic forces” that threaten their puritanical vision for the United States. How deeply Trump believes himself may be debatable, but he clearl…
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…if people agreed with me or not, which for me was huge. So there I was, a newly non-polemicist with a very polemical book! I asked my publisher if I could scrap the whole thing and start from scratch, and thankfully they agreed. Misfit Faith is the result. As far as the inspiration for it goes, I have always taken great comfort in G.K. Chesterton’s insistence that “anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” I have never felt like I’m any good at…
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