Religion Dispatches
…ing their own food and learning to live “off the grid” a bit more. I don’t buy that it’s because the economy may collapse so completely that we won’t even be able to get bread at the supermarket. I think it’s because, in our online age, people want to be connected to stuff, to “real” things like soil and sweat and fruit. And I think that’s part of what’s behind the OWS protests. Their rhetoric is sometimes anti-capitalist. But it’s never anti-Ste…
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…s merchandise, including $40 T-shirts and $32 tank tops. For $150, you can buy a special candle in a porcelain jar, and meditation cushions branded with MNDFL’s handsome heptagonal logo retail for $75. There are stacks of Rinzler’s books for sale, along with titles like Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience and The Wisdom of Insecurity. Rinzler told me that their clientele has been diverse—racially, socioeconomically, and in terms of sexual…
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…eyes of Jesus, and says, “Love. That’s what you’re selling? Well, I don’t buy it.” And then he spits at Jesus’ face. The act was shocking and yes, sacrilegious. I don’t believe we ever would have seen such a display on network television where advertisers rule and protests or boycotts surely would ensue. But it was authentic to Frank’s character, an unabashed, unapologetic villain. He’s a monster, but he’s still a human, if only just. Perhaps wor…
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…cost of true discipleship. The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap…We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition…Was there ever a more terrible and disastrous instance of Christianizing the world than this? It’s regrettable, I think, that “cheap grace” has turned into a kind of meme that Rod Dreher can toss into his debate with Andrew Sullivan without…
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…a random sample size and therefore isn’t statistically representative. The number of individuals reporting victimization in Episcopal spaces is alarming nonetheless. However, I would argue the data is more likely to under- than to overestimate the scope of the abuse that occurs. To see why, the survey results must be interpreted in light of the Episcopal Church’s larger culture of inaction around sexual violence. See no evil, hear no evil… LGBTQ+…
Read More…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…
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…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…
Read More…slogans about immigration reform. On line I heard that parishes with large numbers of undocumented immigrants had received many tickets. No outside food or water, statues, gifts or selfie sticks were permitted. Despite 10,000 folding chairs, most of us would have no choice but to stand. Once in my appointed place behind the last row of seats, I found myself in a community of fellow pilgrims, lottery winners from local parishes, nearby colleges, an…
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…ualism is bad. Also, he notes but offers no explanation for the decreasing number of marriages in many countries. I am glad to see that in Section 34 he understands this basic fact of contemporary western culture: The ideal of marriage, marked by a commitment to exclusivity and stability, is swept aside whenever it proves inconvenient or tiresome. The fear of loneliness and the desire for stability and fidelity exist side by side with a growing fe…
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…along with billboards, TV commercials, yard signs, and slick Easter-themed webpages (“These look like invitations to a hipster wedding,” said a friend who stopped by to observe The Cubit’s research process), plenty of churches went with customized Easter hashtags, à la New Life’s #itaintover. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in the suburbs of Atlanta, pushed #IAmResurrection, with the hashtag scrawled, in enormous, blood red font…
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