Last week, Lisa Miller, religion writer and editor ( Newsweek and the Washington Post) filed an op-ed in which she fulminated against “the left” and journalists who have raised concerns about the influence of dominionist thinkers on Republican presidential candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry.
What makes the claim that “pregnancy is not a disease” compelling right now? Why does it have cultural traction? Where does it come from? I suggest that this idea is idiosyncratic and particular to our own day. Precisely because it’s such a timely notion, it’s predictable that this would be the anti-contraception rebuttal. At the same time, it’s a claim that’s full of tensions.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray for the forgiveness of our debts, as we forgive our debtors. I know some congregations say “trespasses” and others say “sins.” Where I come from, we always said “debts.” It meant something different from what the landlord did when he knocked on our door, asking for the rent. He wanted money. The Lord’s Prayer asks for a new equilibrium between cost and payment—a different marketplace altogether.