Religion Dispatches
…state senate as a Democrat, by informing voters that she played the online computer game “World of Warcraft.” The website colleensworld.com declared, “Maine needs a state senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world.” As in this latest instance, statements made “in character” were presented out of context. In any case, the strategy backfired. Not only did Lachowicz win the election, but outraged gamers around the country…
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…, and the disagreement was between Christians. American Christmas wouldn’t come roaring back, becoming nearly universal, until the mid-1800s, but it was not because of any campaign by churches. Most credit for the return and advance of Christmas goes to major cultural influences like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the morphing of St. Nicholas into Santa Claus. Dickens’ famous story did not reflect the Christmas of his time but instead was…
Read More…a.” Proposition 8 was introduced by an organization titled Protectmarriage.com and is supported by various organizations and individuals, from the Catholic Bishops to John McCain and—apparently—the Knights of Columbus. According to a recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, 54% of Californians oppose Proposition 8. However, with 6% still undecided, $1 million from a well-known Catholic organization could tip the scale. $…
Read More…and offensive views on abortion. They never have and they never will. The coming four years will see a widening gap between the people and their President on this fundamental issue. As Americans come to know how extreme his position is, the intensity of the struggle to protect these children will only increase…” – A Grave Mistake and an Abiding Hope, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life “The election results and the scandal of the Catholic vote o…
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…nment power to extend the reach of that religious exercise over the entire community. When it asked the Supreme Court to take the case, the Institute brazenly claimed the prayers were “a quiet prayer by himself,” a “personal prayer,” and “a silent or quiet prayer.” As the photos show, this is untrue. https://twitter.com/BradleySGirard/status/1482098135577071621 A judge on the Ninth Circuit called out the Institute’s dishonesty, writing that its cl…
Read More…ie. Their Enochic counterparts, the Watchers, fall from heaven to earth, become encased in soil and rock and become walking, talking piles of rock with glowing, explosive inner cores. – The Watchers supply the bulk of the manual labor to build the ark. – Noah’s sons are not all adult, married men when they enter the ark (Gen 7:7). The lack of wives for the boy on the cusp of manhood and the much younger boy-child are plot devices. – When Noah gets…
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…Otherwise, we faithful won’t be moved to apply our beliefs in search of a common good. 3. Check the literacy level. I once edited a theologian’s commentary that tested out at a post-doctoral reading level. Since most U.S. citizens’ reading comprehension has now dropped to between 6th and 8th grade level, how well would the theologian’s essay have been understood in its original form? Fortunately, there are plenty of online resources that will tes…
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…of a “homeless ghost” is so disturbing). An ancient, unambiguous morality compels us to lay our loved ones to rest in proper, dignified fashion. Even the most pagan-phobic, sky-god-reviling atheist out there would think it unnatural to toss his or her dead mother’s cadaver into a dumpster. The fact is, curious as it may seem, human beings have always treated the dead with a greater degree of respect than the living. And so, again, I wonder, and I…
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…n is outed or comes out his own? I would much prefer that a gay politician come out on their own, even if there’s some pressure for them to do that. When it rises to the level of hypocrisy of what the politicians that I profiled in the film have done, then I think it should be recorded way or another. How did you choose the subjects that you focused on? We were looking at subjects over a 25-year span, and we choose those subjects we could get corr…
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…ldhood religious group for the Anglican/Episcopal tradition), it is fairly common among evangelical writers and intellectuals. From the historian Randall Balmer and the author Ian Morgan Cron, to the poet Luci Shaw and even Bono of U2 — evangelicalism’s creative class is loaded with Anglicans.” This quest for wholeness leads her to the doors of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tenn. Organizing her memoir around the sacraments of baptism,…
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