https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to healthcare en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/09/02/lying-save-our-lives-why-you-should-say-whatever-it-takes-get-covid-vaccine Hello again from our current public health clusterfuck, in which COVID infections continue to rise domestically and globally while the FDA makes it harder and more confusing for Americans to get vaccinated against the virus. The FDA did approve Moderna’s… Tue, 02 Sep 2025 06:46:44 EDT Rebecca Epstein-Levi 9af9033d-35db-43b2-98e7-17448de2032c https://religiondispatches.org/2025/08/08/nihs-autism-registry-has-roots-nazism-white-christian-nationalism The National Institutes of Health are (still, again) trying to create a registry of autists, according to a report released by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. “The Committee”—wow, is that ever Kafka-esque—“includes funding for the Autism Developmental Disabilities Monitoring… Fri, 08 Aug 2025 05:08:53 EDT Megan Goodwin 0e55b35f-0b28-4d8c-a5c8-e596cee6caa3 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/22/youve-been-gone-politics-hysterectomy-and-impossibility-choice Last I checked, my uterus was in a jar in Schenectady. An ignoble end for a thing that was once burdened with glorious purpose, like an old prizewinning racehorse going off to the glue factory. It’s been 17 years since… Thu, 22 May 2025 11:37:01 EDT Lissa Harris 45540c25-f028-4c91-bba9-b7b523846ab6 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/21/capitalisms-violence-calls-collective-wrath-not-luigi-mangiones-privatized-rage A grainy, jittery video has gone viral on social media. Duct-taped to a chair and goggle-eyed with fear, the hostage, a Dark MAGA tech bro, is petrified—and for good reason: the balaclava-clad terrorist behind him is gleefully revving a chainsaw… Wed, 21 May 2025 05:01:12 EDT Mark Dery 4d9b86a4-c21d-4c3b-b010-b04ae0161d22 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/07/white-mans-blunder-why-rfks-obsession-chemtrails-and-terrain-theory-wont-make-america Another day, another series of alarming claims from Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the current head of Health and Human Services. This week, on Dr. Phil Primetime (currently available on YouTube or his own streaming channel, Merit TV), RFK announced his… Wed, 07 May 2025 05:05:34 EDT Susannah Crockford 521ff243-dfda-45ae-8684-50b289c18f83 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/10/psychedelics-experience-renaissance-emorys-new-center-psychedelics-and-spirituality For years, in addition to writing about it numerous times for RD , I’ve included a section on psychedelics and religious experience in my Introduction to Religion course. When I first began to teach on the topic, my students, for… Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:38:18 EST Hollis Phelps 43175669-52f5-46dc-92c4-c740c3db3932 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/26/christian-health-sharing-ministries-arent-all-corrupt-heres-why-they-are-problem In my previous column here at RD , I used historical retrospective and my personal memories of the 1990s era Christian opposition to “Hillarycare” to contextualize the colossal failure of Sharity, a major Christian health sharing ministry (CHSM) that’s currently… Tue, 26 Apr 2022 04:41:19 EDT Chrissy Stroop 0d949d82-ef1a-4306-9c98-beb7b280fdcd https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/21/evangelical-healthcare-sharing-plan-catastrophically-fails-why-did-so-many-join-first Remember the 1990s ? The inexplicable popularity of fluorescent fanny packs? The innocent thrill of getting AOL and connecting to the world wide web for the first time? Everyone talking about how Bill Clinton was probably the Antichrist who would… Thu, 21 Apr 2022 12:34:24 EDT Chrissy Stroop 3a5201a0-d8a5-48d7-9668-f79b3addd2ff https://religiondispatches.org/2017/07/25/catholic-nuns-show-bishops-how-its-done-obamacare In the end, it would be a fitting sort of justice if it were the Catholic nuns who saved the Affordable Care Act. After all, it was only through the efforts of Sister Nancy Keehan of the Catholic Health Association… Tue, 25 Jul 2017 12:00:11 EDT Patricia Miller 1365bec1-e6b6-4406-9001-80cad0e99149 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/07/20/bad-religion-heart-gop-healthcare-policy Even as Mitch McConnell’s last-ditch and putatively face-saving “repeal, then replace” maneuver fails, it’s important to remember that the anti-Obamacare gospel remains firmly in place among True Believers. VP Mike Pence, a “real Christian” in contradistinction to our Sinner in… Thu, 20 Jul 2017 12:48:01 EDT Peter Laarman 27867664-08dc-491e-9396-9096da888c76 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/06/29/gop-isnt-pro-life-after-all The GOP’s morally indefensible position on maternity care shows the hollowness of the party’s claim to be “pro-life.” It also shows a way forward on abortion for Democrats. Texas Rep. Peter Olson this week became the latest Republican to assert… Thu, 29 Jun 2017 02:32:35 EDT Patricia Miller 807cebba-f2e2-4f34-8131-c9c0fd047d57 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/04/why-trumps-religious-liberty-order-whole-lot-nothing This morning’s presidential signing of an executive order “promoting free speech and religious liberty” isn’t the broad license to discriminate against LGBT people that many activists feared. Instead, it’s a vague, largely symbolic gesture that seems intended to appease the… Thu, 04 May 2017 06:47:36 EDT Sunnivie Brydum 081ec1d1-7c23-4ddd-92a8-871317920a62 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/03/08/how-die-america-conversation-ann-neumann Nobody likes to talk about death. And when we do talk about it, we romanticize it, or veil it in mystery. “The way we talk about dying and the way we die are two very different things,” writes journalist Ann… Tue, 08 Mar 2016 07:52:57 EST Ellie Faustino 24a84479-b201-45fc-8b54-2119083145d0 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/08/21/google-data-reveal-poor-have-interest-above-dark-religion The estimable David Leonhardt made a media thing happen over the past few days with his Upshot report on what amounts to a NY Times anal exam of web searches, aided and abetted by the non-evildoers at Google. I was… Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:31:07 EDT Peter Laarman 35949148-01dc-4110-90b8-08eba443212e https://religiondispatches.org/2013/09/11/time-call-satan-satan A pastor takes a close look at GOP policies. Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:17:26 EDT Peter Laarman 05ef5915-5355-47af-90e0-1ce6d087e01b https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/19/catholic-house-divided-over-reproductive-health-care-bishops-launch-new-campaign In the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to require that insurance plans cover some non-abortion related reproductive health care, the bishops have launched a political campaign. Will US Catholics follow? Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:31:41 EDT Frances Kissling b78d9a09-74e4-4093-9daa-9766f6b8ce66 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/05/04/republicans-dangerous-quest-end-nonexistent-taxpayer-funded-abortion House will vote on H.R. 3 tomorrow. Wed, 04 May 2011 02:48:06 EDT Sarah Posner 2755d96e-ebc0-4c3e-aa03-7d745418ee40 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/03/28/insurance-coverage-abortion-health-care-reform-threatened At the first anniversary of health care reform legislation, an unprecedented attack is spreading across the nation to restrict or even ban insurance coverage of abortion for millions of women. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:41:47 EDT Carlton Veazey bd11c751-f483-4b0c-a1a1-eccaaf563600 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/02/02/if-abortion-isnt-health-care-what-it Republican Congressman Chris Smith, a conservative Catholic, introduces “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” says abortion is “not health care.” Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:40:44 EST Mary Hunt 0bb27313-b1f7-4fc1-9cf5-254ce912d88a https://religiondispatches.org/2011/01/18/mental-health-spiritual-and-religious-issue After the Tucson shootings, a prayer for Jared Loughner. Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:41:49 EST Joanna Brooks 3aab22a5-d800-42bc-960e-05ddee63505f https://religiondispatches.org/2011/01/11/why-cant-we-take-death-seriously-obama-administrations-latest-retreat The truth is that the administration simply caved before the still potent specter of so-called “Death Panels”—a specter created last year by the likes of Sarah Palin, John Boehner, and other disingenuous opponents of health care reform. Let’s just say that in this new year, Team Obama is worried to death (pardon the expression) about defending its signature health care law from further assaults from the newly-emboldened Republicans. Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:43:26 EST Peter Laarman 402a37e7-a228-44fb-a836-1014d6141b0f https://religiondispatches.org/2010/10/19/anti-choice-groups-target-anti-choice-democrats-health-care-lies Susan B. Anthony List embroiled in legal proceedings over its advertising in Ohio. Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:21:34 EDT Sarah Posner 38b1fdd2-9d2a-4d30-8b6f-d12fb5c2ec01 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/06/28/americans-are-overtreated-death Real hope isn’t that the therapeutic cavalry will coming riding over the hill at the last moment. Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:19:24 EDT Daniel Schultz 97e27e45-3c97-4b62-8f94-6753fd3d1087 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/05/13/kung-fu-nuns-beatles-amish-healthcare-week-religion-poetically A roundup of the latest from the world of religion. Thu, 13 May 2010 11:03:02 EDT Christopher Marchsteiner 4de9cf5a-e4c2-4b72-841b-53830687d208 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/03/25/health-care-acrimony-will-only-get-worse Has the incivility and outright hostility finally wound down, or is it just getting started? Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:57:07 EDT Candace Chellew-Hodge 88af9a39-6619-4ad0-b8d5-ed7ca4170260