In the News: Heaven, Human Rights, His Holiness, and more!
A round-up of the week’s religion news. Continue Reading →
Tag: liberation theology
He Winketh with His Eyes, He Speaketh with His Feet
Joe McKnight: Walter Wink was, among other things, an outspoken critic of the “biblically-based” homophobia that has long plagued Christianity. Continue Reading →
Rumors of Liberation Theology’s "Huge Influence" Are Greatly Exaggerated
Joe McKnight: Mark Oppenheimer’s explanation of liberation theology underscores the theology’s fundamental principles which are often wholly overlooked or deliberately maligned by President Obama’s detractors. Continue Reading →
Rumors of Liberation Theology’s “Huge Influence” Are Greatly Exaggerated
Joe McKnight: Mark Oppenheimer’s explanation of liberation theology underscores the theology’s fundamental principles which are often wholly overlooked or deliberately maligned by President Obama’s detractors. Continue Reading →
Santorum's Holy Sanctum
Amy Levin: I’m not sure God would be too happy with Santorum lately – I mean, it’s one thing to defend religious liberty in the name of a Christian nation, but it’s another to use petty language to reference divinely ordained scripture. Despite his claim that he was not criticizing the President’s Christianity, Santorum’s Ohio speech that claimed Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible,” made serious headlines last week. Phony? I don’t think I’ve heard that verbal jab since 6th grade recess – now that’s an abomination. Continue Reading →
Santorum’s Holy Sanctum
Amy Levin: I’m not sure God would be too happy with Santorum lately – I mean, it’s one thing to defend religious liberty in the name of a Christian nation, but it’s another to use petty language to reference divinely ordained scripture. Despite his claim that he was not criticizing the President’s Christianity, Santorum’s Ohio speech that claimed Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible,” made serious headlines last week. Phony? I don’t think I’ve heard that verbal jab since 6th grade recess – now that’s an abomination. Continue Reading →
For Liberals: An Academic Candy Coating for theBitter Pill of God
Amy Levin: Those who find religion scholars to be an insular grouping of armchair academics out of touch with the “real world” (a term said scholars enjoy deconstructing), might have been surprised to hear some of the panels at this year’s American Academy of Religion (AAR) Conference in San Francisco. Though the conference followed suit from previous years in its diversity of religions, ideas, and (inter)disciplines, many of the discussions trended towards a mix of religion, politics, the public sphere, democracy, grassroots organizing, peacebuilding, and secularism. You know, the “real stuff.”
Lisa Miller, an editor at Newsweek and keeper of the weekly Belief Watch column, taps into the academic space of public politics in this week’s column, “Is the black church the answer to liberal prayers?” She opens the conversation with the following: “As the American left continues to seek a coherent way to articulate its moral priorities in these days of political stalemates and widening income gaps, it might look to the most unlikely of places — the academy — for guidance and inspiration.” While I would hesitate to suggest that the “American left” and “the academy” have been in a long distance relationship up until now, Miller’s point is well taken. Continue Reading →
Applying Liberation Theology to theArgument for Gay Marriage
Amy Levin: Last Wednesday, June 15th, something historic happened…for the fourth time. The New York assembly approved the same-sex marriage bill, known as The Marriage Equality Act, which spearheaded a hopeful telos to allow same-sex couples to enjoy benefits and protections of marriage under state law. The New York Senate currently has 31 backers of the bill, including two Republicans, and is waiting for one more to pass the bill. Publicity of the bill has awoken a slumber of supporters and opponents alike, as many realize that among the five states that allow same-sex marriage, New York is by far the most populated, and hence, the most consequential for social change.
As long as we’re making history, it can’t hurt to be cautious of what is at stake when we narrate our steps to marriage equality in America. While opponents of same-sex marriage often fall under the categories of religious, conservative, Christian, and/or Republican, we should be careful not to turn a potential victory of marriage equality into a victory of secular liberalism over religious conservativism. To help delineate why, the work of political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry is quite useful. Featured in last month’s essay by Peter Montgomery at Religion Disptaches, Harris-Perry believes that “LGBT Advocates Need Public Progressive Faith.” Continue Reading →
The Roots of Racism
Rachel Sladja at Talking Points Memo has a good piece up about the roots of all the recent Shar’iah-is-coming-for-your-freedom hysteria. It’s worth a read for the research TPM did to trace the anti-Muslim commentary in the media over the past decade. But I can’t help but wonder if Islam (and Shari’ah) doesn’t just conveniently fit into the bogeyman placeholder that’s been consistently used by conservatives to manipulate foreign policy. Continue Reading →
Beck Off!
You don’t mess with the theologians, Glenn Beck. The folks at Union Theological Seminary haven’t found Beck’s use and knowledge of the bible to be quite up to snuff so they’ve taken up a collection of the good book to send to him. They’ve also devoted a page at their site to articles by UTS staff and students, including Serene Jones, seminary president, and Kathryn Reklis, director of Theological Initiatives. Of particular emphasis in these articles is Beck’s denigration of liberation theology. You can read the articles here. (h/t Adam H. Becker) Continue Reading →