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Politics and Religion

2015-10-13T07:47:28-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The transgender locker room debate comes close to home

Last updated on: October 13, 2015 at 7:47 am By Jane the Actuary

This issue made the news back in September, when students in Missouri protested the use of the girls’ locker room by a “transgirl”; that case was resolved by the student involved dropping gym class. Now it’s reappeared, more locally. This is not my school district, but the adjacent one, and my high schooler is a boy, not a girl, but I can only imagine how parents, and their girls, must feel: now, once again, they’re being told that they must... Read more

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2015-10-12T21:29:41-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Church tax, and its consequences

Last updated on: October 12, 2015 at 9:29 pm By Jane the Actuary

Is there a German schism in the works? That’s what fellow Patheos blogger Dwight Longenecker speculates, citing a National Catholic Register article, as German Cardinals seem prepared to go it alone if the current marriage-and-family synod doesn’t result in a rewrite of Catholic doctrine on marriage and the family to their liking: Cardinal Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, said as far as doctrine is concerned, the German episcopate remains in communion with the Church, but on individual issues... Read more

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2015-10-11T17:39:57-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“If they won’t let me stay in Germany, I will go back home”

Last updated on: October 11, 2015 at 5:39 pm By Jane the Actuary

That, paraphrased, is what a Syrian “refugee” is quoted as saying in this “greatest hits” video of complaining migrants, in Germany and in the Netherlands; in this case, said by a man who came to Germany with his wife and two children, one of whom is a disabled preschooler. And by “won’t let me stay in Germany,” he’s referring to plans in the EU to move migrants to other EU countries, not some fear of being moved to a refugee... Read more

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2016-01-26T19:43:14-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Could armed Jews have stopped the Holocaust?

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 7:43 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yes, and no, and “depends on what the meaning of ‘stopping the Holocaust’ is.” If you’ve been following U.S. presidential campaign news, and you’re probably better off if you haven’t, you know that the other day Ben Carson was questioned, in a CNN interview, about a book excerpt that said, “German citizens were disarmed by their government in the late 1930s and by the late 1940s Hitler’s regime had mercilessly slaughtered 6 million Jews and numerous others whom they considered... Read more

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Holocaust

2016-01-26T19:44:13-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

OK, I’ll bite. . . Fiorina and the Middle Ages

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 7:44 pm By Jane the Actuary

So reports are that Fiorina is using as an applause line, the claim that her undergraduate degree in medieval history gives her a special understanding of ISIS and how to respond to them. It goes like this, according to ABC News: “Finally my degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy,” Fiorina said Sunday night, “because what ISIS wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages, literally.” . . . Pressed to explain how her... Read more

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Fiorina

Middle Ages

2015-10-12T20:13:03-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The constitution is not sacred

Last updated on: October 12, 2015 at 8:13 pm By Jane the Actuary

Before I start writing, let me just remind you all, and any new readers in particular, that my discussion of some topics and not others is not a reflection on what is or isn’t important, but just what I feel halfway competent writing about. In particular, the situation in Syria (and Germany!) is going from bad to worse quickly, but, so far as I can tell, it is far, far too late for any easy solutions. But here’s what I... Read more

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2015-10-07T12:12:38-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reading D.C.’s Universal Paid Leave Act

Last updated on: October 7, 2015 at 12:12 pm By Jane the Actuary

I’ve been waiting for my lunch break all morning, having first read about D.C.’s proposed new paid family leave benefit yesterday, and returned to it this morning before starting work. If you’ve missed the reporting on it so far, the bottom line is that it’s a plan to provide 16 weeks of paid leave for a variety of needs, via a progressive payroll tax on employers paid into a central fund. Is it a long shot to be passed? Probably... Read more

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2015-10-06T14:38:14-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Happy German-American Day!

Last updated on: October 6, 2015 at 2:38 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yes, this is a real thing, though for many years of German school I’d always thought it was the school’s way of relabelling Tag der Deutschen Einheit (“Day of German Unity”) for its families. In any event, it gives me the opportunity to share the pictures my husband took of the display in Frankfurt of “Unity Men” (Einheitsmännchen) created to mark the 25th anniversary of the (re-)unification of Germany. At the Römer (the Old Town Square): And at the airport hotel: ... Read more

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2015-10-05T16:19:17-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Fame or fantasy? Thinking about mass killers’ motivations

Last updated on: October 5, 2015 at 4:19 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yesterday I wrote a little piece, “6 thoughts on gun violence“; what follows is an attempt to unpack Thought #4. It is by now common knowledge that mass killers, such as the Oregon killer and the Sandy Hook killer and the Virginia Tech killer and the Aurora killer, do so because they want to be famous, because in their own perverted mind being famous for killing is perhaps not as good as being famous for doing a great deed, but... Read more

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2015-10-05T08:29:42-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Immigration and self-determination

Last updated on: October 5, 2015 at 8:29 am By Jane the Actuary

Here’s the latest news: two items from the Washington Post, as I blow through my monthly allotment. “Some refugees in Germany get Zumba classes, but others sleep on the streets” — the headline wants to suggest that Germany is treating its refugees unequally, but the article itself makes it clear that Germany is facing a major problem. The article repeats prior statements of 800,000 arrivals this year; other sources now say that’s been revised to 1.5 million – and still... Read more

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