When it comes to Christian heresies, right wing Christians think that they are blameless and it is only those permissive left-wingers who support progressive causes who are deviating from orthodoxy. But Chris Hedges, a progressive journalist who is also a Christian and studied for three years at Harvard Divinity school early in life, argues that the opposite is true, and that is the Christian right who are the true heretics. [Read more…]
Ralph Nader has come up with a list of 21 reasons why the Canadian health care system is better than the one that the US has. It is pretty good. Here are just two items. [Read more…]
There is a very good reason why political parties should keep their distance from religious institutions. The former need to be able to adapt to changing social values and new political realities while the latter, locked in as they are to doctrines that are supposedly god given and unchanging, tend to be unable to evolve so easily. So if by a fortuitous set of circumstances, the values of major organized religions and a political party coincide, that may result in short term electoral success for the party but it would be mistake for the party to identify itself too strongly with the values of the religions because at some point the paths will inevitably diverge because social realities change faster than religious doctrines. [Read more…]
British comedians John Bird and John Fortune discuss the new media landscape that seems to be passing them by and wonder what they should do about it. And in the process, deliver their usual insightful critiques about the nature of current society. [Read more…]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York is perhaps the most prominent Catholic cleric in the US, a favorite of the media, even buddies with Stephen Colbert. In a recent interview, he tries to explain why the Catholic church is not anti-gay and suggests that this is largely a problem of marketing, that advocates of same-sex marriage have managed to pull the public relations wool over the eyes of the public to make them seem like they are the ones on the side of history and painting the church in a bad light. [Read more…]
This looks like Religious Freedom Restoration Act day on this blog because the US Supreme Court acted today in another case involving RFRA.
Last year’s major case involving the Affordable Care Act resulted in the US Supreme Court upholding the individual mandate that requires every individual to purchase health insurance. But there is another mandate in the law called the employer mandate that requires companies that have more than 50 employees to provide affordable health care to their employees. That was not part of last year’s case. [Read more…]
I saw this strange story about Jeremy Gordon Grinnell, a pastor in a Michigan church and also a professor of something called ‘systematic theology’ at Cornerstone University, who was caught peeping on a couple having sex in their bedroom. When he was spotted by one member of the couple, he quickly clambered down and escaped. [Read more…]
The Wall Street Journal has an article quoting key lawmakers who are members of the congressional intelligence committees, the very bodies who are supposedly secretly briefed on all the government’s activities, saying that the people of the US are even less safe now than they were before 9/11. [Read more…]
In the US, legal challenges on the role of religion in public life are governed by the section of the First Amendment to the US Constitution that says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. It is the first part, known as the Establishment Clause, that has been in the news recently and comes into play whenever the government takes any action that leads to suspicions that it is endorsing any or all religions. The second Free Exercise clause basically guarantees that people should be free to practice their religion as they see fit. [Read more…]
Kevin Spacey is one of the best actors around these days. In this appearance on the TV show Inside the Actors Studio hosted by James Lipton, he also reveals a talent for impersonating other actors that goes beyond just mimicking the voice but also extends to gestures, mannerisms, and tics. [Read more…]