On the Blogs
Forward Christian Europe!
An Essay in Religion Dispatches on the Killings in Norway.
While it may be expedient or comforting to declare Anders Behring Breivik to be insane—as his lawyer has, with most pundits following suit—what should really concern us is the political agenda that underlies the massacre. This is not about Breivik, the person, but about the political world from which he comes and to which he speaks, a world in which the defense of Christendom is so urgent that it must lead to violence. Breivik forces us to recognize what kind of politics of religion is taking hold in Europe.
On Gay Marriage
From Columbia University Press’s blog
In the aftermath of New York’s gay pride parade which celebrated the recent passage of same-sex marriage, we are posting an excerpt from Ludger H. Viefhues-Bailey’s Between a Man and a Woman?: Why Conservatives Oppose Same-Sex Marriage. In the book Viefhues-Bailey examines conservative Christian rhetoric regarding marriage and the ways in which their arguments call for certain norms regarding gender and look to marriage as providing a basis for stability. Here is an excerpt from the chapter, “America and Respectable Christian Romance.”