Maureen Dowd’s Reductio Ad Islam
The Times columnist and Saudi Arabia have at least this in common: They like to deny women agency.
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Does Christopher Hitchens Think Mormons are Sinistererer?
Passing off an old prejudice as atheist cool.
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Making Fun of Mormonism
Planets! Tablets! Underwear! When some of America’s most celebrated pundits and public intellectuals talk about Mormons, these are the images that are summoned. Ironically in this “Mormon Moment”—signaled by a hit Broadway musical, polygamous housewives on TLC, and of course two Mormon presidential candidates—Mormons, long considered quintessential “outsiders” to mainstream American culture, today find themselves at the center of the American zeitgeist. Yet it is the Mormons’ supposed theological weirdness that is the centripetal attraction.
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“Religious Freedom” and the Conservative Quest for Absolute Truth
But the demand for hierarchy has a larger impact on politics. In Bill Clinton’s often-quoted words: “When times are uncertain, the American people would rather have a leader who is wrong but strong than one who is right but weak.” Just as the father must rule to keep the home in order, and the Father in Heaven must be obeyed to keep the universe in order, so the “great white father” in the White House must have firm control to keep order in the political realm.
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Crisis in Philly: Trial Date Nears for Priests Indicted in Sex Abuse Scandal
As this article goes to press, a wrongful death claim has just been filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on behalf of the family of Daniel Neill, a former altar boy who committed suicide in 2009 after reporting his sexual abuse by a priest. This is the fifth civil suit to be filed since a grand jury report issued in February.
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Confession Fail: iPhone App Controversy Muddies the Sacramental Waters
The Confession app relies on a certain level of theological understanding, liturgical compliance, and spiritual will that we might be hard-pressed to find in even a relatively sophisticated believer. This is not entirely a failure of catechism or human will, I suspect. Rather, it is a continuation of what I have seen as a failure of mainline Catholic and Protestant pilgrims into new digital territories to grasp the social nature of new media.
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Will Sisters Save the Catholic Church?
To turn suddenly to sisters as the rescue workers for a male-led institution is to saddle them with a clean-up operation that would “naturally” be a woman’s job in patriarchy.
Read MoreDowd Misses the Muslim World In Her Backyard
She didn’t need to go to Mecca to learn about Islam.
Read MoreIslam, Meet Maureen Dowd
The Times columnist’s latest betrays a terrifying ignorance of Islam.
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