Religion Dispatches
…t makes atheism into one of the factors that we treat as identity —like race and sexuality. Unlike atheism, though, we assume that race and sexuality are not a matter of choice or conscious conviction. Bell’s marketplace uses language of social justice to protect the consumer in the choice—equally valid—between faith in God and faith in unfaith. His gamble might be risky in relation to God, but it is a sure thing in the marketplace….
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…og that he felt that Custer or Columbus would have been a more appropriate code name for bin Laden, and that the use of Geronimo was just another example of how “We’ve been reduced to caricatures as mascots and entertainment in sports and media.” In fact, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee held hearings recently on American Indians and racist stereotypes, and one of the first items of business was a discussion of why this particular code name wa…
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…llywood Censored. The code they designed became the Motion Picture Conduct Code, popularly know as the Hays Code after it was adopted by William Hays, a Presbyterian elder who was hired by the major studios to help clean up the industry’s image after it was rocked by a series of scandals. The code, says Black, “was a fascinating combination of Catholic theology, conservative politics and pop psychology—an amalgam that would control the content of…
Read More…ex relations are still criminalized under the country’s colonial-era penal code. Japan: Ad agency creates think tank to help companies understand LGBT market A major advertising company has created a think tank to “cater to the newfound need among Japanese firms to learn more about sexual minorities, including support to expand into this new market.” More from Japan Times: The LGBT market is still largely uncharted territory in Japan, and there is…
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…ek, I found myself thinking about Zoe in relation to Lawrence Lessig’s Law/Code distinction. Lessig uses the example of speeding. You can make it against the law to speed, and we have the free choice to violate the law and face the consequences. You can program the car so that it can not exceed the speed limit and you take away that free will, except for those who have the capacity to hack the code and reprogram the car. We normally think of robot…
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…ter”. As well as posters, the scheme also aims to tackle improper language use – such as “that’s so gay” – by showing children how to use other phrases to describe something negative. Wendy Francis – Queensland state director of the ACL – told the Brisbane Times: “No one should be bullied at school, including children grappling with same-sex attraction or gender confusion. “But this program goes way beyond an anti-bullying program…Children have th…
Read More…avid Blight tells the story of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by newly freed blacks in Charleston, South Carolina memorializing dead Union troops. In Joplin, Missouri, residents mourned those lost in the tornado. The Department of Homeland Security has ended a post-9/11 registration program that required Arab and Muslim men to register with the government, but not before tangling many Muslim immigrants up in legal proceedings. The Muslim Broth…
Read More…ed Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment declaring that only marriages between a man and a woman are valid in the state. But he points out that militant homosexuals have not respected that decision and have vandalized property, threatened people, and mailed white powder to Mormon churches. Fitzpatrick calls that “fascism.” “Fascism rejects democratic values. We see outright rejection of democracy in California.” He’s half right. Those who oppo…
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…ry director Brock Kreitzburg). As a global enterprise, it has also been accused of blurring the line between church and state during its emergency relief work in developing countries. Graham is a powerful figure, having met Kiir and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir many times to advocate for the country’s Christians. He visited South Sudan in March, prayed with Kiir and the rebel leader Riek Machar, andinaugurated an airport hangar in Kenya. Graha…
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…l persons without discrimination, to repeal all provisions of the Criminal Code that criminalize relations between consenting adults and to put in place an immediate moratorium on arrests on the basis of such laws,” the High Commissioner said. Amnesty International also sounded the alarm on Gambia this week, highlighting the detention and torture of eight people it says were arrested earlier this month: “These arrests took place amid an intensifyi…
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