ReligionDispatches - Dispatches From Human Rights/Immigration

Immigration Reform: A Country Divided, Or a Richer Society?

Cecilia Menjivar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 PST

With the Obama administration’s renewed support for immigration reform, and new support from conservative Christian leaders, immigrants’ rights activists are looking toward real progress—and their vision is supported by recent scholarship in the intersection of religion and immigration.

The Anti-Gay Highway: New Report Details Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between US Evangelicals and African Antigay Clergy

Kathryn Joyce — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:01 PST

A new report documents the trend of evangelicals like Rick Warren exporting sexuality issues to Africa, whose clergy, in turn, support the minority antigay view in mainline denominations, weakening them. The author of the report speaks with RD at length about what he found.

Massacre of Jesuits in El Salvador: 20 Years Later

Richard Amesbury — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:00:01 PST

Two decades after the murder of six Jesuit professors, El Salvador is celebrating the end of right-wing rule and the first peaceful transfer of power in nearly 200 years.

Bad Religion Leaves Big Bruises: When Christians Threaten Health Care Reform

Peter Laarman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:01 PST

Two strands of Christianity battle against a bill ensuring that all Americans are cared for. One prefers John Locke to Jesus while the other has its issues with women.

Escalating Afghanistan: What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?

Peter Laarman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Don’t the clergy have a duty to challenge the march of folly in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Mormonism’s Black Issues

Joanna Brooks — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:00:01 PDT

While many Mormons would like to forget the Church’s history of discrimination against blacks, an Apostle’s recent statements comparing the post-Proposition 8 Mormon backlash to the Civil Rights-era harassment of black voters have brought that painful past back into the spotlight.

Prison as Resurrection

Caleb Smith — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

While it’s clear that prisons in this country are a disaster and a scandal, a new book delves into the system’s religious roots and the belief in the spiritual benefits of disciplinary isolation.

Killing One Primate to Save Another: The Ethics of Animal Rights

Arri Eisen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:00:01 PDT

A disturbing story emerged this week of a scientist leaving his research out of fear for his and his family’s lives. What are our responsibilities in this area and what do our traditions have to say about it?

Jewish “Women of the Wall” Defy Law to Pray

Kelly Hartog — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:00:01 PDT

A powerful documentary, “Praying in Her Own Voice,” chronicles twenty years of struggle for religious equality at one of Judaism’s most sacred sites and asks: How can there be unity when half the population is silenced?

‘Soul Murder’ in the American Workplace

Peter Laarman — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:00:01 PDT

As the media yawns at the latest unemployment numbers, our columnist seeks religious leadership on the taboo subject of our dysfunctional relationship to work. For even if the economy recovers and “full employment” returns, we will still be encountering a workplace that remains a site of utter terror in some instances and a site of routine abuse and low-grade anxiety in others.

How Should We Speak of Unspeakable Evil?

Louis A. Ruprecht — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:00:01 PDT

Do we turn to the wrong institutions when we go to courts of law to attempt to enact forgiveness or reconciliation for genocide?

Afghan Idol: Can a Talent Competition Save a Nation?

Becky Garrison — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:00:01 PDT

An interview with the director of Afghan Star, a documentary that follows a tense but cathartic talent competition.

Why David Sometimes Wins: What We Must Learn From Cesar Chavez

Frederick Clarkson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:01 PDT

A new book by veteran organizer Marshall Ganz tells the sometimes triumphant, sometimes cautionary tale of the rise and fall of Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement. While the story of the movement’s successes is well known, the reasons for its decline are more mysterious—until now.

Cafeteria Cockroaches and Synagogue-State Relations in Israel

Shalom Goldman — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:00:01 PDT

Set against the backdrop of the recent closure of a Knesset cafeteria due to an unkosher cockroach, Shalom Goldman takes an entertaining and meandering look at the state of affairs in Israel. Touching on topics as disparate as the alliteration-happy Israeli media and racist policy proposals, Goldman brings into sharp relief some of the tensions in Israeli religious and cultural life, much of which remains at the mercy of the Orthodox rabbinate.

The Next Generation of the Pro-Life Movement

Bill Berkowitz — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:00:01 PDT

Young people are being trained by militant anti-abortion groups to be informed, media-savvy, publicity-oriented foot soldiers in the battle to outlaw abortion.

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

Kathryn Joyce — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:00:01 PDT

Already distrustful of outside experts, be they members of the education system or leaders of traditional denominations, Quiverfull followers are increasingly eschewing the medical establishment, opting to leave childbirth to God. The recent death of a newborn, however, exposes a growing rift between the most zealous opponents of intervention and those open to some assistance.

Rage Against the Regime: Voices from the Iranian Underground Music Scene

Austin Dacey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00:01 PDT

Iran’s Green Revolt is about freedom and democracy, sure. But it usually has to take form in a particular issue or, as in the case of a growing portion of Iran’s youth, in song. Meet the resistance in the form of the underground music scene.

Banning the Burqa Isn’t the Answer

Rushda Majeed — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:00:01 PDT

French President Sarkozy declared recently that the burqa “will not be welcome on our territory,” as it is a symbol of the enslavement of women. If the president is trying to foster equality of women, is this the best way to go about it?

RDPulpit: Is Barack Obama a “Fierce Advocate” For Gays or Just Pragmatist-in-Chief?

Paul Gorrell — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:00:01 PDT

The Obama administration has gone from indifference to actively promoting religious opposition to the civil rights of gay Americans, comparing same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia. Only when “pink dollars” were pulled did the president approach the LGBT community. A former priest suggests how to make Obama listen.

Economy Yields Too Few Prophets

Peter Laarman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:00:01 PDT

Few mainstream journalists are truly capturing the reality of the economy in terms of the nation’s worst off. As of last month, the actual number of workers in crisis is not the 14 million but more like 29 million, or 18 percent of the total workforce. Where are the religious coalitions willing to challenge the president’s policies?

Respectability and Its Discontents: Missing the Louche, Loud, and Lovely World of Sexual Outlawry

Peter Laarman — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:00:01 PDT

In this meditation on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots an ordained minister, while eulogizing his own outlawry, notes that God’s goodness is evident in the way in which new and seriously maladjusted queer youth are still rising up to bring new energy and edge to the movement.

Disco-Reggae at Abu Ghraib: Music, the Bible and Torture

Erin Runions — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:00:01 PDT

What does it mean when a country that likes to proclaim itself a defender of freedom plays a song about liberation to people it is torturing?

Planned Parenthood ‘Stung’ By Lila Rose

Bill Berkowitz — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:00:01 PDT

Lila Rose, a 20-year-old UCLA student, is taking on Planned Parenthood with a phony story, video equipment, and support from a host of Christian Right media outlets and organizations.

When Medicine and Religion Conflict Around Children: The Case of Daniel Hauser

Wendy Cadge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:00:01 PDT

When Daniel Hauser and his mother, members of new Native American religion the Nemenhah Band, opted out of chemotherapy and fled to Mexico, the media were ready with a religion vs. medicine narrative.

Transforming America’s Israel Lobby

Dan Fleshler — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:01 PDT

In an excerpt from a new book Dan Fleshler, an American Jewish activist from “the pro-Israel left,” explains the reluctance of Jewish liberals to criticize Israel on the human rights front, even when they share the rest of the world’s objections to Israeli behavior.