In this Presidential election season, it is especially important to recognize how the rhetoric of the Bible still shapes our religious and political imagination and the American political discourse. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman to have secured the nomination as a major party presidential candidate in US history, is consistently characterized as untrustworthy by […]
By Rosemary Carbine. The Workgroup on Constructive Theology recently produced a video titled Fear Not!, which encourages Christians to respond in faith to the dangerous public discourse of the current U.S. political season, which has featured prominent public figures who endorse Islamophobia, racism, anti-immigration policies against refugees, and so forth on religious grounds. Inciting a […]
I have been pondering how to respond to the events of sexual harassment, theft, and rape in several major cities in Germany on New Year’s Eve of 2015. Did the gangs of men, looking “North African” and “Arabic” to the mostly female German victim-survivors, indicate a failed integration policy in Germany or deeply ingrained patriarchal […]
Recent comments by the presidential candidate Ben Carson on Muslims in the United States, and the controversial beef ban in India that has led to the murders of Muslims, causes one critically analyze the word “secularism” with regards to the Muslim identity living in a globalized world. In a world that is quickly and increasingly […]
A curious thing happened last week regarding female Orthodox rabbis. When the umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewish congregations denounced female clergy for the third time in five years, they actually accepted that there are, in fact, female Orthodox rabbis. Eighty years ago, Regina Jonas of Berlin was the first woman ordained as a rabbi, but […]
By Arminta Fox. The risks are great for online feminists, as Megan Goodwin’s recent blog post argues. In some circles, adding religion to the conversation makes it riskier, even if being undone by the feminist religious other is desirable. The risks for feminists of color and non-cisgender feminists, who face multiplicative levels of oppression, can […]
At the beginning of every semester, I start classes by asking my students to introduce themselves. I ask them to answer several questions which vary by semester. What does not change is a practice I began in my first semester teaching undergraduate students at Occidental College. I ask my students to give me their preferred […]
By Mitzi J. Smith, PhD Many people applauded The Daily Beast photo of the twenty-something year old white female protester who stood toe to toe with a New York City cop defiantly screaming into his face and daring him to arrest her. The white male cop remained stoic and motionless. That is quite a contrast […]
Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig in The New Republic thinks that feminists should not give up on Francis. Maybe not though he provides little to chime my feminist bells. My view is that any suggestion that Pope Francis is a feminist is like calling Raul Castro a Republican. It is simply absurd. While one can affirm many […]
The United States has seen major changes in the past week. Healthcare subsidies were upheld for residence of states not participating in the federal healthcare exchange. Same-sex/gendered partners can marry in all 50 of the United States. Social institutions and laws can change the social fabric and cultural rules by which we live. Legal decisions […]