Women: Second-Class Citizens in the City of God
Down through the ages, women have fared very poorly with the world’s major religions. For example, my own Christian religion has blamed women, through Eve, for sin and death entering the world.
Religious Conflict Archives
January 17, 2007 7:51 AM
Comments (72)March 25, 2007 10:20 AM
Apocalyse Now
I believe that the “end of the world” theologies of the radical Christian Right helped to get us into the war in Iraq and are still fueling the drive to extend the war. “The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse,” says Rev. John Hagee, a mega-church pastor in Texas.
May 4, 2007 8:35 AM
Mainstreaming the Mormons
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) is the fastest growing world religion. From a reviled and feared sect for much of its history, the LDS have become a politically, economically and globally powerful church. The partial accommodation Mormons have made to American culture, especially in the official repudiation of “plural marriage” (polygamy), as well as their growing economic and political power makes it inevitable that their cultural and religious location would change.
May 9, 2007 10:21 AM
Tip from Jesus: Watch the Money
“Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.” (Mark12:41a)
Everybody knows the touching biblical story of the “widow’s mite” where the poor widow puts all she has into the temple treasury. Jesus contrasts her generosity in giving out of her poverty to the gifts of the rich, who give only give out of their abundance. (Mark 12: 42-44)
May 31, 2007 7:43 AM
Spirituality of Resistance
“War is hell,” said General William Tecumseh Sherman. Hell can be defined simply as the furthest away you can get from what is good and right, the furthest away you can get from God. War, therefore, is the antithesis of God’s will for humanity. God’s will is that we take care of one another and the creation. War, by contrast, is the organized destruction of human beings and the deliberate infliction of damage to their land, their homes, their communities and all that they hold dear.
June 20, 2007 8:13 AM
Road to Hell Bulldozed with Good Intentions
When the U.S. decided to pre-emptively attack Iraq, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa predicted that the invasion would “open the gates of hell” in the region.
As the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This administration had a grand vision of ‘bringing democracy to the region’ and did not stop to check that vision against historical precedents for conflicts where religion plays a significant role, nor moral precedents against pre-emptive war.
September 13, 2007 8:36 AM
God Had Nothing to Do With It
On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, our mutual goal in these columns is surely to reduce the disturbing global tendency to engage in violent attacks and use religion to justify the violence. My message to those who would use religion to justify indiscriminate killing in the name of God is simply as follows: “This is your own pride and sinfulness acting. God had nothing to do with it.”
February 3, 2008 9:49 PM
Women as Bombs: No Innocent Civilians Anymore
There are no non-combatants in war anymore. What the 21st century has brought us, building upon the bloody 20th, is the death of the concept of the non-combatant. Terrorism has destroyed many things, but the chief among them is the compete destruction of the idea that there is anyone innocent, anyone who may not, in good conscience, be targeted in war. The ideology of the terrorist is that all except the pure (i.e. those who are of the same ideology) are guilty and deserve to die.
