Religion Dispatches
Now that the curtain’s been pulled back on the false wizardry of a deregulated financial system, and Americans have been left holding a bag full of bank bailouts, home foreclosures, historic levels of unemployment and poverty, and wage stagnation for those with jobs, “loser” is a label most of us can, in one way or another, wear easily in the current economy. So goes the American Dream these days.
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Jeffrey Stout’s Blessed Are the Organized is arguably even more relevant now than when it was published last year. Even then, the United States economy had collapsed in on itself. Barack Obama’s role had fully shifted from community organizer to Beltway compromiser, and the grassroots was being overgrown by Tea Party “astroturf.” But now—as politicians wrestle our economy even lower to the ground at the behest of organized elites, and the voice of the majority seems to grow ever fainter in their ears—the kind of real grassroots organizing Stout writes about seems all the more to be what we need.
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“As a black, feminist, marriage-equality advocate I reside at an important intersection in this struggle. This movement must acknowledge the unique history of racial oppression, while still revealing the interconnections of all marriage exclusion. This work must reflect the feminist critique of marriage, while still acknowledging the ancient, cross-cultural, human attachment to marriage. This work must be staunchly supportive of same-sex marriage, while rejecting a marriage-normative framework that silences the contributions of queer life.”
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When he’s not writing bestselling books, Vincent Bugliosi is a legendary prosecuting attorney. As such, he is certainly well acquainted with the legal policy of presumption of innocence. His newest book, Divinity of Doubt, a treatise on agnosticism, would have been much better if Bugliosi had taken this principle into account in the context of his arguments for, and against, God.
Read MoreAlmost a year to wait until the matter is taken up again by state courts.
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Bakker on LGBT inclusion: “My goal is pure acceptance, not just tolerance. I think we’re on the verge of that. People are having conversations. I had someone ask me to listen to this sermon that was a thirty-minute apology, and then a ten-minute why it’s wrong to be gay. So, I’m starting to see these pastors apologizing for what they’re about to say. They seem to know, instinctively, that what they’re doing is wrong.”
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By repeatedly asking what was in his heart, the FBI seems to have, not only sought to establish intent, but assumed that Muslim militancy is directly related to religion. Moreover, its operative assumption about religion was an implicitly Protestant one which conceived religion as an inward experience (faith) rather than the more Islamic conception of religion as the moral standard by which people ought to be judged. While the FBI was trying to ascertain the intent of Mohamud’s heart, Mohamud himself, by FBI’s own account of events, appears to have been preoccupied with creating sensational headlines.
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The most recent comments from the Vatican on the Pope’s intentions in his remarks on condom use emphasize his desire to “kick-start” a discussion. It would be fair to ask: a discussion about what? And to wonder if there might be an openness to those who have an alternate vision of human sexuality to that which has dominated official discourse over the last 30 years…
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Not long ago I helped lead a graduate seminar in leadership in which I challenged the old idea of the heroic leader and messianic deliverer; an idea that has deep roots in all three Abrahamic faith traditions. Not one person in that seminar room—not even the white males who were present—had anything good thing to say about the old model. Everyone agreed that we can do better by listening to each other, trusting each other, and finding new paths together.
Read MoreA tidal wave of change in the opinion of religious communities toward LGBT inclusion is met by even more strident opposition by some conservatives.
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