North Carolina race shows how parties have traded places on culture wars
Republican Senate challenger Thom Tillis has been almost silent on previously hot-button social issues while Democrat Kay Hagan has gone on the offensive In ...
By: rosanow
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North Carolina race shows how parties have traded places on culture wars - Video
When a conservative Christian denomination sets up a conference about homosexuality, you know that there are going to be fireworks.
Albert Mohler, a speaker at the Southern Baptist Convention's 'The Gospel, Homosexuality and the future of Marriage' conference.
This week the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission hosted a conference entitled, 'The Gospel, Homosexuality and the future of Marriage'. The SBC is the second largest Christian denomination in the US, so has a great deal of influence.
But though it received a lot of criticism, the outcome of the conference seems to be more positive than might have been anticipated. With the subject of sexuality being the main weapon of both sides in the 'culture wars' of liberal vs conservative, at least in the US, the outcome of the conference and the comments from participants might indicate that there could be a lessening of hostility between the two sides.
The SBC is often seen as the voice of conservative Christianity: it "self-consciously seeks to set the tone for conservative evangelical teaching and witness on human sexuality" according to writer and academic Jacob Lupfer.If this is the case, then this side of the 'culture wars' is showing a considerably more conciliatory tone without changing its theological stance on the subject.
Rachel Held Evans, a prominent blogger and generally a critic of conservative Christianity,tweeted objections to the conference, and retweeted the criticisms of LGBT Christians on twitter.
The ERLC did come under strong criticism from people who argue for total inclusion and equality for the LGBT community. For example, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWB) tried to campaign against the theological stance of the SBC, for holding that homosexual sex is a sin. In the end, they only achieved half their goal of getting 1000 signatures in support of their views ahead of the conference.
However a number of commentators and attenders noted a significant shift in the attitude of the SBC at the conference. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, publicly repented of his previous denial that homosexual orientation exists. Russell Moore, a senior figure within SBC, stated that ex-gay therapy can be harmful, and spoke against anti-gay bullying.
There were a number of LGBT voices speaking at the conference, though all of them signed up to conservative understanding of the Bible on the issue. One was the UK's Sam Allberry, author of Is God anti-gay?. Another was Rosaria Butterfield, now a pastor's wife, who once identified as a lesbian. Professor Christopher Yuan at the Moody Bible Institute also spoke about his sexuality and celibacy.
The liberal website ThinkProgress found that pastors are not changing their viewsabout whether homosexuality is a sin, but that they are rethinking the way in which they relate to the LGBT community: "They felt torn between what their faith tells them is true and what they hear from LGBT people about the negative way those messages are received," said its report. "Rather than needing reinforcement about what the Scripture tells them, they were focused on learning how to improve their tone to be more loving and respectful, how to truly treat LGBT people as more than just their identities, and how they might reconsider how much to emphasize the sin of homosexuality."
Original post:
Homosexuality: are the 'culture wars' coming to an end?
Sermon 20141026 Joseph Anterola #39;s "Culture Wars"
Laity Sunday 1st Peter 2:11-12, 16-17 (NRSV) John 8:1-11 (KJV)
By: Midway United Methodist Church
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Sermon 20141026 Joseph Anterola's "Culture Wars" - Video
The High Holy Days are upon us. No, not that one. The high holy days of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
And with that, come the culture wars again. Some pundits Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc. issue annual statements about the pagan origins of Halloween, and why their community should not participate in it. Certain Christian preachers like Pat Robertson opine:
The whole idea of trick-or-treating is the Druids would go to somebodys house and ask for money and if they didnt get money theyd kill one of their sheep, that was the sheep and it was serious stuff. All this business about goblins and jack-o-lanterns all comes out of demonic rituals of the Druids and the people who lived in England at that particular time.
In my own community, many Muslim leaders are politically quite progressive (against racism, against empire, against wealth disparity) but somewhat culturally conservative. In a widely circulated blog post by Imam Zaid Shakir, the charismatic American Muslim leader who is often favorably compared to Malcolm X, he offered a dismissal of Halloween:
One the tragedies of our times is found in the easy willingness some Muslims accept practices, rituals or cultural symbols that have their roots in demonic or occult practices.
This is not going to be one of those columns.
I find myself in a different space. I have zero interest in endorsing or rejecting Halloween on the basis of fitting in, assimilating to, or rejecting mainstream culture. I couldnt tell you anything about the Druids without going on Wikipedia. My concern has nothing to do with the historic origin of Halloween because, lets be honest, many of our religious traditions (and even buildings) have pagan roots. It has to do with what Halloween does for our community, or at least for my neighborhood.
A teenage girl tries on a Halloween costume in Miami, Florida. Halloween is now the second-largest commercial holiday in the United States according to National Retail Federation. Americans spent approximately billion on Halloween in 2013.
Yes, I struggle with certain parts of Halloween. I struggle to see 10-year-old girls dressed up in ways that project a type of precious sexuality. It breaks my heart to see the girls' costume aisle look like something out of a sick, perverted male fantasy. Rape culture, indeed.
Yes, lets just stop with the sexy Ebola nurse outfits, please. Or the female ISIS-fighter costumes.
Excerpt from:
Omid Safi: In praise of Halloween's ability to connect neighbors
October 27, 2014
by Thomas Fuller@www.nytimes.com
When he organized a get-together for dog lovers and their canine-averse neighbors, Syed Azmi Alhabshi thought he was doing a public service.
But after hundreds of people showed up to the event, billed as I Want to Touch a Dog on Facebook, and when pictures started circulating on the Internet of Muslim women in head scarves happily hugging dogs, Mr. Syed Azmi became an unwitting protagonist in the latest chapter of Malaysias culture wars.
In the week since the event, Mr. Syed Azmi, a pharmacist, has received more than 3,000 messages on his phone, many of them hateful and a dozen of them threatening physical harm. The police advised him to stay at home.
Malaysias Muslim leaders, who cite Islamic scriptures stating that dogs are unclean, lashed out at him in the news media. I feel the anger, and it is real, he said in an interview.
Over the past two weeks, Muslim leaders in Malaysia have denounced Halloween as a planned attack on Islam and Oktoberfest parties as a public vice the same as mass-promoted adultery.
The culture wars have waxed and waned in multicultural Malaysia in recent years as conservative Muslim groups have pushed back against what they describe as libidinous and ungodly Western influences in a country that has rapidly modernized and become more cosmopolitan.
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Comment on Want to Touch a Dog? In Malaysia, Its a Delicate Subject by Terry