Religion Dispatches
It’s no accident that so many allegations of serious abuse have arisen across Sovereign Grace Ministries. The combination of patriarchal gender roles, purity culture, and authoritarian clergy that characterizes Sovereign Grace’s teachings on parenting, marriage, and sexuality creates an environment where women and children—especially girls—are uniquely vulnerable to abuse.
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Across South Carolina—and indeed the country—voters attend tiny churches, Bible studies, and prayer meetings. Their collective views on the candidates are much more difficult to measure and assess. And while they may be consumers of Christian talk radio, or televangelism, or other religious media, they are not lock-step followers of the decisions of elites who met at a ranch in Texas, or of Jim Bob Duggar, or of anything but their own received revelation.
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Some are too invested in hate as their shtick, but others like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen…
Read MoreLooking for friends to help raise $1.5 million for swing-state campaign.
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The New Apostolic Reformation has been in the news a great deal since Rick Perry first announced his prayer rally, The Response. Sarah Posner has an investigative journalist’s view of this movement, its place in religious movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and in politics. Here she is in conversation with Anthea Butler, a scholar of American religious history.
Encouraging women to claim power through humiliation.
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When I heard the goals for this year’s massive prayer rally—healing America in a time of crisis, accomplishing racial reconciliation, repairing Detroit, and (here’s the part where I come in) bringing Jesus to Muslim hearts—I figured a Muslim in the crowd could be a nice twist. My plan was to report from the inside, to talk to the attendees as one among devoted thousands. I’d try to understand how such Christians understand Islam, for Lou Engle’s world is alien from my New England roots and New York life. I’d attended churches before, but nothing like this.
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Bear with me.
Read MoreUgandans dispute his account of not supporting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Read MoreThe religious right’s new favorite charismatic apostle stirs fears of eugenics and launches a plan to honor King’s legacy by denying people health care.
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