Religion Dispatches
…students answered that his mother, a Santeria practitioner originally from Puerto Rico, liked to sprinkle it around their apartment to fend off witches. Witches? Concerned and curious, Wendroff soon became a one-man watchdog of the ritualistic use of mercury. He learned that many practitioners of Caribbean religions like Santeria, Palo, and Voodoo believe that mercury can bring good luck and keep evil spirits at bay. In large US cities with substa…
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…denominational Pentecostal churches. Haiti, along with Jamaica and Puerto Rico, is home to one of the fastest growing Pentecostal populations in the Caribbean. As I watch the drama unfold in Haiti, and feel it here in Miami, the home of the largest Haitian Diaspora in the United States, I cannot help but think of another earthquake, another country. In 1976 a 7.5 earthquake devastated Guatemala, leaving 23,000 dead and over 50,000 injured. My hus…
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…earlier this year that, based on data collected from 13 states and Puerto Rico, almost three-quarters of LGBTQ homicides in 2013 were transgender women, more than two-thirds trans women of color. In Wales, Liberal Democrats marked Transgender Awareness Week by leading a debate in the Welsh Assembly on issues faced by trans people. Gambia: UN, Amnesty International Sound Alarm About Anti-Gay Persecution This week the United Nations High Commission…
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…merican denominational Pentecostal churches. Haiti, along with Jamaica and Puerto Rico, is home to one of the fastest growing Pentecostal populations in the Caribbean. As I watch the drama unfold in Haiti, and feel it here in Miami, the home of the largest Haitian Diaspora in the United States, I cannot help but think of another earthquake, another country. In 1976 a 7.5 earthquake devastated Guatemala, leaving 23,000 dead and over 50,000 injured….
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…e showings at churches or for film critics? KH: Yes, the film was shown in Puerto Rico and will be shown in Washington DC and Orlando this week. Other screenings are being organized around the country. ++++++++++ 40 Days for Life Campaign “As the country marks the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that imposed abortion on the United States, as well as the inauguration of the most outspokenly pro-abortion president in America…
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…an empire. We weave this theme throughout the book by sharing examples of Puerto Rico, my country of origin, and one of the five colonies currently inhabited by the US. CS: One of the unusual aspects of The Neutrality Trap that made it an engaging read was the direct engagement with your own experiences as scholars and activists The anecdotes and reflections drawn from your experiences at the end of each chapter also really made the abstract prob…
Read More…ry, they’d been forced out of their neighborhood by an influx of black and Puerto Rican migrants (whom they blamed for rising crime rates in the city), and from their new church, which was firebombed, and eventually sold to a Hispanic Catholic congregation. That was the way they told the story, anyway. I never found out exactly how much of this was factual and how much was an embroidered narrative of racial resentment, but they certainly believed…
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…to ground their actions. I’m opposing religion providing the language and codes that shape the public. The public, I’ll say again, should be a secular space. BRAXTON: Let me say again, I gladly embrace a secular public sphere. Yet in a secular public sphere that is democratic, no singular person or group should decide what language and codes will shape public discourse and practice. As diverse individuals and groups engage, debate, and persuade o…
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…. So it’s more about representation and identity than it is about specific codes or laws.” Even though some political activists in Middle Eastern and North African countries promote “Islamic law” in reaction to the imposition of European-style government and legal systems on them, there is no single school of thought on what shari’ah, or divine law, is or means—and there is no single, accepted legal code. “If Islamic law were some book where you c…
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…o call the whole mess “soul murder.” One state legislator is calling for a RICO investigation of the conspiracy, calling it “nothing less than organized crime.” Despite the pledges by Pope Francis and other Vatican officials to take a zero-tolerance position on abuse and to make a full reckoning of sins of both omission and commission, it appears that the church is still dedicated to protecting its power and privilege over seeking justice for abus…
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