https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to christianity en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/04/25/its-battle-life-antiabortion-movement-willing-expose-its-enemies-death-and-theres-old The recent Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone presents itself—in the typical pattern of antiabortion politics—as a form of protection. The suit alleges that the FDA failed to properly assess the safety risks of the… Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:40:18 EDT Beatrice Marovich 7cbb95c9-aa94-4c7c-9edd-98fb40b28889 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/02/06/jokes-chatgpt-chooses-which-religious-traditions-and-figures-deserve-respect-and ChatGPT is all the rage. It even drives some people into a rage. It does some remarkable things, it does some outrageous things, it does some absurd things. Most things it does badly, such as tell you how to build… Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:28:42 EST Robert M. Geraci 1855ed91-1864-4e29-9194-89b56ce07424 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/30/how-gratitude-underwrites-inequality-power-and-exclusion-0 Gratitude operates like resentment. When we find ourselves in a position of owing—and people in a democratic society always owe something to other people—we may become vulnerable to control. Wed, 30 May 2018 03:02:14 EDT Eric C. Miller 39533d5f-7cb7-41a6-90e0-187f851a49f9 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/17/must-we-burn-something-get-attention-50-years-after-catonsville-nine-0 If we think about Catonsville not just as a curiosity, a minor episode in the history of radical chic, but as a provocation or a template, what do we learn? Must Americans burn something to get attention? Must religious protesters be arrested? Thu, 17 May 2018 02:51:26 EDT Jason C. Bivins 433ef49b-829f-473d-bd15-d6bbf028521d https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/16/faith-baiting-minnesota-and-elsewhere-follows-project-blitz-playbook-0 Critics say any such display of the Ten Commandments in this way, may also violate the Oklahoma state constitution. But whatever the fate of these bills, the Christian Right and the politicians who cater to it have a long game in mind, and most seem unaware of the game itself. Wed, 16 May 2018 01:35:24 EDT Frederick Clarkson 834209cc-29a8-42e7-b4a4-10168116587f https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/14/why-has-critique-hypocrisy-run-out-steam It’s not that Republican politicians and strategists had become convinced of critical theory’s questioning of how scientific knowledge is produced. It’s that their desire to undercut the “realist attitude” and their love of uncertainty about the true had appeared to strangely dovetail with some postmodern theorists. Mon, 14 May 2018 02:46:22 EDT Christopher Douglas a5f43331-b1c3-4330-967c-67dc8f6990b2 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/17/new-book-those-who-cling-post-racial-christianity In The Death of Race, theology professor Brian Bantum explores how issues of race and gender are theological complexities fundamental to understanding humanity’s place in the world. Fri, 17 Feb 2017 07:00:25 EST Brian Bantum c695cc87-45e1-4464-a818-1ab4cdaaa713 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/14/let-it-be-glorious-sunday-night-worship-chance-and-bey-grammys When I listen to these albums, it feels like church, it feels like home. Tue, 14 Feb 2017 02:53:06 EST Anita Little f05a37b7-2a6a-4f38-aa22-c074e9b06087 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/01/03/rev-barber-moral-center-not-religious-left-will-save-us-2017 Is the eve of Trump era the darkness of the tomb or the darkness of the womb? Tue, 03 Jan 2017 01:47:05 EST Peter Montgomery 1cd30612-5128-4465-bbc3-b9d2e8a875b7 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/12/26/year-end-best-books-race-and-religion-american-history With all the memes wishing a good riddance to 2016, and John Oliver’s epic send-off to this annus horribilis, it may seem small comfort that this was a year that might be remembered as one of the most important in… Mon, 26 Dec 2016 03:02:40 EST Paul Harvey d7d1ca1d-6929-467f-8a30-999bff86a0ea https://religiondispatches.org/2016/12/16/call-yourself-evangelical-isaiah-11-or-orville-redenbacher-dont-organize-under-it What I care about is that a vulgar-talking yam-fascist and his allied goons in Congress are about to savage the American state and the nation it’s supposed to serve. Fri, 16 Dec 2016 04:11:02 EST Daniel Schultz 946f0550-3fcb-4a8b-8328-264e292dcae3 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/11/23/sharing-bad-news-donald-trumps-theology-glory “Quite possibly, bearing the cross might mean opening our homes to immigrants, confronting our racist uncles at Thanksgiving dinner, taking to the streets, and putting our bodies on the line.” Wed, 23 Nov 2016 09:00:00 EST Matthew Dodrill acb4f4fd-414e-4377-a582-3df913741538 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/11/17/white-evangelical-leaders-already-distancing-themselves-81-percenters Some conservative Christian leaders are challenging the statistic that 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump. Thu, 17 Nov 2016 02:30:31 EST Neil J. Young 784160c2-d332-4fff-a8e6-7f281fd6a510 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/10/24/jesus-has-left-building-celebrating-next-reformation Today we have the same fossilization of institutional religion, only this time it is us Protestants. Mon, 24 Oct 2016 12:26:46 EDT Donna Schaper c8d1326b-7b38-4fdd-9dbf-c38b406c2b0f https://religiondispatches.org/2016/10/07/jesus-atheists-and-agnostics-and-nones-and-everyone-else “There is absolutely nothing to stop us ‘seculars’ from following Jesus.” Fri, 07 Oct 2016 01:14:37 EDT Tom Krattenmaker 8ba6e63a-599b-4d8e-9ba4-ffa7bae8f8eb https://religiondispatches.org/2016/08/15/meaning-make-believe-why-religion-doesnt-have-be-real When I was in fifth or sixth grade my father bought me a King James Bible. It was bound in white faux leather and embossed with gold lettering. My dad was not religious in the slightest (though he had a… Mon, 15 Aug 2016 08:09:54 EDT Neil Ellingson 7c311ee6-632a-4fd0-9a0a-8179e3c74a5d https://religiondispatches.org/2016/07/08/how-wreck-your-faith-theologian-teaches-outlaw-christianity Back in the mid-1990s, I excitedly announced to my mother—who had spent a good part of her adult life as the wife of a Southern Baptist minister—that I was going to enroll in seminary. She looked up from her tomato… Fri, 08 Jul 2016 07:00:52 EDT Candace Chellew-Hodge 9cbb4a09-2c91-4b24-9037-86990f7ed847 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/24/furious-sadness-conversation-christian-protester-nazi-saluting-trump-supporter Every so often, a news story of the day opens up into something deeper, broader, something that transcends the moment it was forged in. So it was with Michael Joseph Garza, whom I originally wanted to speak to briefly about… Tue, 24 May 2016 08:53:55 EDT Daniel Schultz e9c466e5-2889-45a4-9f51-38e1a5e2e805 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/02/pornographys-dirty-little-secret-what-we-say-vs-what-we-do Last month, Utah officially declared that pornography is a public health hazard, approving a resolution that contradicts much of the current scientific research. Regardless of one’s political or moral concerns about pornography, public policy ought to rely on the most… Mon, 02 May 2016 11:25:26 EDT Shira Tarrant 153e2715-7254-4245-81a4-b1ae7a67c77a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/03/23/americans-hate-muslims-too-and-other-impediments-us-advocacy-religious-freedom-abroad Traveling through India in the summer of 1998, I arrived with some friends at Varanasi’s main train station. Wanting to retrace the steps of characters from Shusako Endo’s novel, Deep River, we made a call to a backpacker’s hostel featured… Wed, 23 Mar 2016 01:32:06 EDT Chad Bauman 87a3fa0a-9a98-4034-8bd2-d37a3f6beaf1 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/03/17/history-channels-vikings-subverts-and-supports-violent-heathen-trope From Blood Eagle to Blood Libel to “Wilding,” myths of the violent Other have underwritten violence across centuries. Thu, 17 Mar 2016 02:18:56 EDT David Krueger 7ab45756-35a1-4eef-8a91-9a3358a7e33e https://religiondispatches.org/2016/02/12/australias-harsh-refugee-policies-stirring-backlash-malawi-court-sides-pastors-lift The current issue of ILGA-Europe’s Destination EQUALITY magazine focuses on reconciling sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and religion. The magazine includes personal testimonies of LGBT Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists and an interview with Krzysztof Charamsa, the Polish priest and… Fri, 12 Feb 2016 11:07:42 EST Peter Montgomery 20f51a51-4058-4ce6-ba0d-1c36c1f7602a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/08/what-fight-over-allah-says-about-future-evangelical-christianity When Professor Larycia Hawkins of Wheaton College publicly announced her solidarity with Muslims by wearing a hijab through the holiday season—and stated that Christians and Muslims worship the “same God”—the school put her on “paid administrative leave.” And now comes… Fri, 08 Jan 2016 05:56:26 EST Richard Flory a323d76f-d4e4-4a78-883e-dbb24c07cd5b https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/21/what-did-puritans-have-against-christmas Another Christmas, another string of outrages about the supposed “War on Christmas.” In November there was the social media furor about Starbucks’ red cups, as Ed Simon relates here in RD. Then this month, 36 Republican U.S. House members introduced… Mon, 21 Dec 2015 05:08:39 EST Bruce David Forbes ce47356b-a48f-406a-bf4d-bd15a6f3e365 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/11/11/out-options-christians-losing-battle-over-equality In the months since the Supreme Court’s decision to make marriage equality the law, conservative Christian thinkers have followed two tracks. On the one hand, writers like Rod Dreher and Ross Douthat have used the language of war, battle, and… Wed, 11 Nov 2015 06:01:31 EST Kaya Oakes b1618772-d39a-4fd1-b6a4-8cdf6062e281