Category: religion

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What is Our Obligation to Others?

No matter what, I always encounter ideas and behaviors that I can’t, for the life of me, wrap my head around. During college, chemistry was the discipline I just couldn’t understand, and my inability to grasp it led me to change my major, moving me towards education, a path I never thought I’d take. It’s one thing to have trouble understanding something like chemistry, … Read More What is Our Obligation to Others?

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The Moral Majority and “X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills”

Writing about the lynching of Mark and Jill, two Black children, at the beginning of Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson’s X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, John Jennings points out the use of the word “Mutie,” a label that the Purifiers put onto the dangling bodies of the two children. Jennings writes, “the slur “MUTIE” has come to represent for many, all racial, ethnic, homophobic and … Read More The Moral Majority and “X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills”

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“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Role of the Divine in “Watchmen”

A few overarching themes appear in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, each involving our connections with the divine and with others who inhabit the world with us. Recently, I wrote some about this, specifically with Dr. Manhattan’s thoughts about the divine and humanity. Today, I want to continue examining these themes, notably through the use of Genesis 18: 25 at the end of Chapter III … Read More “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Role of the Divine in “Watchmen”

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The Violence of Fear in Evangelical Christianity

In “Are We Still Buying a New World with Old Confederate Bills,” Lillian Smith writes, “The Devil knows that if you want to destroy a man, all you need do is fill him with false hopes and false fears. These will blind him to his new direction and he will inevitably turn away from the future and destroy himself and those close to him.” … Read More The Violence of Fear in Evangelical Christianity

Christianity and the Manipulation of Power

I don’t remember the first time I heard Regan Youth’s “Jesus Was A Communist” (also titled “Jesus Was A Pacifist”), but I remember the impact it has had on me. On the song, Dave Rubinstein sings, over and over again for four verses, “Jesus was a communist/Jesus was a pacifist/Jesus was a communist/Jesus didn’t like the rich.” Reagan Youth pointed out the intersections between … Read More Christianity and the Manipulation of Power