Religion Dispatches
While it won’t be the same as it ever was, an Obama presidency will give the Religious Right an opportunity to bask in the glow of martyrdom and seize the mantle of underdog, while it raises hundreds of millions of dollars for its political campaigns and the never-ending ‘culture wars.’
Read MoreInstead of looking to earthly things and earthly power to bless us, we are to be a blessing in the world. Instead of caring so much that we become overwhelmed by the wicked ways of the world, we are to live our lives as a blessing to others. It is up to us to create a secure world.
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In a small town in Spain, a yearly festival celebrates the hybrid racial and cultural identities, both Christian and Muslim, of the local populace—a ritual of reconciliation.
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Gay and Lesbian people are weary of being used as a political and spiritual football, tired of being kicked around. This election brought history-making moments for progressives, but some crucial setbacks for the rights of gay citizens.
Read MoreDoes Obama’s selection of a militarist Democrat as Chief of Staff mean that the Religious Left will be left behind in an Obama Administration? New: Bloggers respond.
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Is President Obama destined to disappoint progressives? Our columnist channels theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, reminding us of the human potential for both good and evil, and offering a pragmatic approach…
Read MoreRD News Round-Up: November 17, 2008: New surveys on the faith vote; Rev. Moon’s plans for the UN; Jews to Mormons: lay off the dead; plus Jill Stanek, Tom Minnery and Joel Hunter
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Is authentic religious commitment incompatible with critical thinking, reason, or compromise, as philosopher Simon Critchley seems to imply in a recent essay on Obama? Or is our challenge to refuse the false oppositions between total transformation and conflict, or politics and piety?
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A generation after the infamous Scopes Trial, a biology teacher, Susan Epperson, went to court and won the right to teach evolution theory. Even the election of a new, more science-friendly administration, however, does not ensure that the Bible will no longer be used as a science textbook.
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According to Zen, ignorance is the grand-daddy of suffering. That some AIDS victims are “innocent” and some not is not only ignorant, but the antithesis of compassion.
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