Politics and Religion

WOMEN ARE NOT SLUTS, RUSH, DOUCHE-BAG IS NOT FUNNY, JON, AND SEXISM IS MORE THAN “INAPPROPRIATE,” MR. WHITEHOUSE SPOKESPERSON! by Carol P. Christ

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Why is it OK to insult women, our bodies, and our sexuality in ways that it is no longer OK to insult other groups?more Why is it OK to insult women, our bodies, and our sexuality in ways that it is no longer OK to insult other groups?

The recent controversy over Rush Limbaugh’s rant about Sandra Fluke would not be so important if Limbaugh were not the “voice” allowed to say things that Republican politicians cannot say in public. Republican politicians wish to appeal to men who would say exactly what Rush said, while watching Fox News or over a beer with their buddies.

The Virgin-Whore split is alive and well in our culture. Sandra Fluke  finally did get to testify in a hearing called by Nancy Pelosi.  She  assumed a woman’s right to choose when and with whom we have sex and whether and when we will have children, but she did not focus on sexual freedom. One of her examples was a married woman who could not afford birth control and another was a woman who needed birth control pills for reasons having nothing to do with sex or sexual activity. She did not appear in Congress in a mini-skirt (though she should have had every right to do so) but in a business suit. Yet she was called a slut and a prostitute and asked to post porno films of herself on the internet.

No One Is Safe from the Parodist (Part 1) by Barbara Ardinger

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Now, with only a minimum purchase, you can save your loved ones—your friends—your neighbors—your business... more Now, with only a minimum purchase, you can save your loved ones—your friends—your neighbors—your business associates—from eternities of suffering and torment. Our new Multi-Level Marketing company guarantees Eternal Salvation for you and your entire downline.

Ultimele interviuri românești ale lui Eliade și "felix culpa" (Europa, Novi Sad, nr. 9, mai 2012)

by Liviu Bordas

Secțiunea ”Eliade în Serbia iugoslavă” are câteva completări față de versiunea din România literară (16 decembrie 2011).

În Addendum - primul interviu cu Petru Cârdu (tradus din limba sârbă de Adrian Costea) in versiune completa. In România literară a apărut fără partea introductivă și fără notele de subsol.

Institutionalizing Modern "Religion" in China's Buddhism: Political Phases of a Local Revival

by David Wank

In Making Religion, Making the State: The Politics of Religion in Modern China. Coedited with Yoshiko Ashiwa, pp. 126-150. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.
Final preproduction draft

The Civil and Ecclesiastical Politics of Leviathan

by Jens Olesen

Paper to be presented at the XXII. World Congress of the International
Political Studies Association (IPSA), as part of the panel “The Politics of
Images: History and Change” (convened by Professor Terrell Carver),
8-12 July 2012.

The Disquieting Revolution: A Genealogy of Reason and Racism in the Québec Press

by Alan Wong

Wong, Alan. “The Disquieting Revolution: A Genealogy of Reason and Racism in the Québec Press”. Global Media. 4.1 (2011): 145-162. Web.

Within the past decade, a series of contentious events concerning the accommodation of different cultural and... more Within the past decade, a series of contentious events concerning the accommodation of different cultural and religious traditions and practices in Quebec has incited much debate in this region. Labelled the “reasonable accommodation” issue by the local press, this controversy, which has its roots in neo-nationalist sentiments born of the Quiet Revolution, has incited responses ranging from denunciations of racist discrimination to calls for more stringent measures to ensure the assimilation of non-Westerners into Québécois culture. As Monika Kin Gagnon points out, this concept has moved beyond its legal origins to become a “social discourse” in the culture at-large, in that many in Quebec are vocally expressing their anxieties over the idea that the rights of newcomers has reached a tipping point, whereby the limits of reason are now over-stretched, weakening the dominant population’s values and identity. Much of this fear was stoked by certain stakeholders in the 2007 Quebec election, namely politicians and media outlets, when reasonable accommodation was highlighted as a major issue. This paper provides an analysis of that election and the campaigns leading into it, revealing how the press and the leaders of the three major political parties were complicit in transforming some negligible and private incidents into a greater menace endangering the very existence of Quebec society. By tracing the genealogy of “the reasonable Québécois”, I will demonstrate how reason and racism became intertwined during the course of this debate over rights, identity, and citizenship in Quebec.

Keywords: Election; Immigrants; News Media; Québec; Racism; Reasonable Accommodation; Religion

Sowing the Seeds of Sacred: Political Religion of Contemporary World Order and American Era

by Mika Aaltola

Brill, 2008

The cultural resource of religion offers an often ignored medium for international legitimacy and hegemony. Political... more The cultural resource of religion offers an often ignored medium for international legitimacy and hegemony. Political Christianity with its emphasis on spectaculous and revelatory events provides the embeddings for the contemporary American world politics. This book examines how the recent seminal events - i.e. Kosovo, September 11th, Afghanistan, and Iraq - draw from the Western traditions of political religion. The key question is how these cultural resources are used to conserve and animate U.S. leadership and hegemony in world affairs. The result is a fresh overview into to the underpinnings of international relations.

อาวุธนิวเคลียร์ ฤาจะทรงมหิทธากว่า ศาสนาเพื่อสันติภาพ? [หมายเลข 1]

by Patra 黄博 Suwanwatthana

เนื้อหาแปลและเรียบเรียงจากบทความสองบทความ กล่าวคือ ภารกิจถาวร: งานศาสนาเพื่อการลดอาวุธนิวเคลียร์ โดย อลิสัน พิทลาค (An... more เนื้อหาแปลและเรียบเรียงจากบทความสองบทความ กล่าวคือ ภารกิจถาวร: งานศาสนาเพื่อการลดอาวุธนิวเคลียร์ โดย อลิสัน พิทลาค (An Enduring Mission: Religion's Work for Nuclear Disarmament, by Allison Pytlak) และ ศาสนาและการเมือง โดยสตีเวน ลอยด์ ลีพเพอร์ (Religion and Politics, by Steven Lloyd Leeper)

แปลและเรียบเรียงโดย ภัทรารัตน์  สุวรรณวัฒนา
ตีพิมพ์ในปาจารยสาร ฤดูฝน 2010

 

The Quran, Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law

by Tanveer Hussain

Caodai Exile and Redemption: A New Vietnamese Religion's Struggle for Identity

by Janet Hoskins

Globalization and the Religious Resurgence: A Comparative Study of Bahrain and Poland

by Magdalena Karolak

Authors: M. Karolak & N. Karolak

Sketching a New Public Philosophy: The Theory of Republican Modernity

by Michael J. Thompson

Published in Where Do We Go from Here? Mark Major, ed. (Lexington Books, 2010)

This essay develops an argument for a more radical form of public philosophy based on the lines of republican... more This essay develops an argument for a more radical form of public philosophy based on the lines of republican political theory. It is a critique of the limitations of both liberal and communitarian theories of politics and develops what I call "republican modernity" as a paradigm for developing new institutions and a new kind of progressive politics.

The Principle of Laicism and Counter State-building in Turkey: Reflections on History and on the Conjuncture of Contemporary Politics

by Senem Ertan

The principle of laicism has been one of the main pillars of the state-building process of Turkey. Laicism in Turkish... more The principle of laicism has been one of the main pillars of the state-building process of Turkey. Laicism in Turkish context was held through incorporation of religious institutions into the state apparatus. Starting with the 1990s parties with
Islamist background have gained political power and found their way into government. With some reflections on the historical evaluation of Turkish politics, this article accommodates western oriented theories of state-building suggested
by prominent scholars such as Charles Tilly and Stein Rokkan, and Barkey’s complimentary model of state formation for non-western societies. The key objective of this article is to scrutinize the relationship between the state and religion during the old and the new state-building processes of Turkey. This study provides systematic empirical evidence to the argument that Millennium has witnessed a well-organized counter state-building process carried on by the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

الجامعة والتربية على المواطنيّة: "جامعيّة" المقاربة المسيحيّة للتربية السياسيّة

by Georges NAHAS

نحّاس، ج. ن. (2007). الجامعة والتربية على المواطنيّة: "جامعيّة" المقاربة المسيحيّة للتربية السياسيّة. دور الجامعات في بناء مستقبل لبنان في وسائل الإعلام وتحديات التربية. معرض الإعلام المسيحي السادس، أنطلياس، لبنان.

في عالم يزداد فيه استعمال الدين كمقوّمة من مقوّمات العمل السياسي، يرد نعت "المسيحي أو المسيحيّة" على عديد من... more في عالم يزداد فيه استعمال الدين كمقوّمة من مقوّمات العمل السياسي، يرد نعت "المسيحي أو المسيحيّة" على عديد من مكوّنات الحياة السياسيّة. تهدف هذه المداخلة إلى وضع أطر تتناسب والمقاربة المسيحيّة للشأن العام ويمكن أن تبنى عليها تنشئة تربوية ملائمة للتربية على السياسة.

"Identity, Politics, and the Future(s) of Religion in the UK: The Case of the Religion Questions in the 2001 Decennial Census"

by Paul Weller

Journal article published in Journal of Contemporary Religion, Volume 19, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 3 - 21

DOI: 10.1080/1353790032000165096

This article is based on a lecture of the same title originally given at the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, Regent's Park College, Oxford, 14th February, 2002.

With the publication of the results of the United Kingdom's decennial Census questions on religion it is important to... more With the publication of the results of the United Kingdom's decennial Census questions on religion it is important to situate this data within the wider social and religious contexts that led to the inclusion of these questions in the Census.

This includes engagement with some of the issues likely to affect both the data itself and the uses to which it might be put. The varied forms of the questions on religion as asked in different parts of the UK are outlined within the context of a discussion of the scholarly taxonomy of religions.

The questions are also explored in the light of the interplay between the varied categories of religions and the official 'recognition' implied by their use within the Census.

Finally, the place of religious statistics within the 'politics of identity' as well as their potential contribution to the development of a communalist 'identity politics' are critically explored.

Abortion rhetoric in American news coverage of human cloning

by Eric Jensen

Published in 'New Genetics & Society', 2006

The issue of human cloning has received intense media and political attention since the cloning of Dolly the sheep was... more The issue of human cloning has received intense media and political attention since the cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced in 1997. This research explores the discursive basis for support and opposition to human cloning by examining the role of abortion-related rhetoric in constructing the concept of human cloning within the American press. An in-depth content analysis of human cloning news coverage was conducted on a sample of articles collected from the mainstream press as well as advocacy publications with either a pro-science or Christian fundamentalist orientation. Statistically significant differences were found indicating an important role for abortion rhetoric in the human cloning debate. This expansion of abortion rhetoric into the domain of science policy portends a unique and growing problem for resolving bioethical debates within American politics over the future development of biomedical technologies such as human cloning.

Jensen, E. and Weasel, Lisa H. (2006). ‘Abortion rhetoric in American news coverage of human cloning’. New Genetics & Society, 25(3): 305-324.

“‘A Destroyer Will Come Against Babylon’: George W. Bush’s Oracles Against the Nations.”

by Dereck Daschke

  Chapter in A Cry Instead of Justice: The Bible and Cultures of Violence in Psychological Perspective.  D. Andrew Kille and Dereck Daschke, eds.  Continuum, July 2010.

The Extremes Are Sometimes Closer: Peoples Temple, the Tea Party, and Anti-Governmentalism Then and Now

by Dereck Daschke

The Jonestown Report, Vol 12.  http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume12/Daschke.htm