Religion Dispatches
The presidential inauguration showed that an enforceable wall of separation between church and state simply does not exist in America, at least at the level of expression in the public square. What is the future of secularism in our religious democracy?
Read MoreObama’s civil religion, like JFK’s and Bush’s before him, emphasizes the connection between God and American ideals. But Obama spoke not of “endowed rights” but of “God-given promise.” Rights are inherent in the creature while promises are to be fulfilled.
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The new Patriarch is considered a modernist, but his support for freedom of religion is spotty, and Russia’s fledgling gay rights movement will not find an ally in Kirill.
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The Democratic leadership caved in to conservative Republicans on family planning this week. The opposition for the religious right goes back to the historic rupture between sex and reproduction in the 20th century.
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Former pastor Ted Haggard is desperate for redemption, but he can’t do the one thing that might make it possible—admit and accept that he’s gay.
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There’s something about American evangelical life that tends toward the production of these sex sagas and tonight’s HBO documentary on Haggard airs just as new dimensions of the sex scandal emerge.
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Benedict’s ecclesial acceptance of someone most thoughtful people wouldn’t invite to a cocktail party showed a disregard of the sensibilities of his own flock.
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The differences among religious folk in this country—once these issues make their way into politics—manifest in real divisions of money and power and security. To think that these conflicts can be resolved with mild-mannered compromises between Third Way and centrist evangelicals underestimates their importance.
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Although Rick Warren’s Saddleback church teaches women that physical abuse is not grounds for divorce, there is a growing literature for evangelical women—by their peers—that shows women how to get out of an abusive marriage, while remaining in the church.
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When Daniel Hauser and his mother, members of new Native American religion the Nemenhah Band, opted out of chemotherapy and fled to Mexico, the media were ready with a religion vs. medicine narrative.
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