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Our Failure To Understand Ferguson: A Cognitive Explanation

By Andrew Aghapour

…ed: they couldn’t facilitate bribery. We would have to buy new, full-price tickets to Iran. On the phone with JetBlue’s customer service line that night, my righteous fury dissipated quickly. Could JetBlue really be to blame for bad weather, or a mechanical problem, or whatever system error had made our flight impossible? Don’t I benefit regularly from this massive travel infrastructure that, like Lady Justice, doles its punishments out blindly? I…

How To Talk To “Nones” and Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…and the message, but actually hungry for both. When I spoke to Bell on the phone a couple weeks after the event in Durham, he told me, In some ways what I do is basic pastoring. It’s, you give people an idea, you let them respond to it, you give them another idea….it’s basic spiritual direction. Like the itinerant rabbi, the guru—not to say that I’m a guru—but there’s a long tradition [of that kind of work]. But so many people right now are rethin…

Episcopal Church Assault Data Reveals the Dark Side of Inclusive Christianity

By Charlotte Dalwood

…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+…

How to Choose a Tour Company for Your Hajj

By Amina Wadud

…is the one for next week. I simply would not recommend them for anyone who needs to have details spelled out the way I do. I need a calendar of “things to do before making hajj,” with deadlines set well in advance so I can work my way toward them in accordance with my real-life constraints and possibilities. Otherwise I don’t adjust very well. Maybe people like to have ultimatums in order to respond, but it doesn’t work that way for me. One thing…

We Went Through Amoris Laetitia Section by Section So You Wouldn’t Have To

By Anthony Adams

…sultation, it became clear that ordained ministers often lack the training needed to deal with the complex problems currently facing families. The experience of the broad oriental tradition of a married clergy could also be drawn upon. While Pope Francis is on solid ground in Amoris Laetitia when he talks about the need for communication, respect, gratitude and courage in moments of crisis faced by husbands, wives and families, he does not apply a…

Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

By Rachel Wagner

…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…

Power Up: Turn Off the Cell Phone

By Daniel Schultz

…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…

‘I Don’t Buy It’: The Gospel According to Frank Underwood

By Cathleen Falsani

…ave his only son….” (Even shows that handle religion remarkably well still need more help in the consulting department. I can’t fathom any clergyperson reciting John 3:16 and leaving out the second half of the verse: “…that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”) “Devotion. Sacrifice. Love. This is what the Lord teaches us,” Eddis continues at the graveside, “and what these young men have exemplified. We shall fore…

Google’s Benevolent Interfaith Big Tent

By Lucia Hulsether

…one that is so prophetically omniscient that it can anticipate its users’ needs. With the Google ad, we have a new kind of pastoral guide—one who is less concerned about what we buy, and more concerned about how we physically move through the world according to its irresistible—but oh-so-welcome—pull. For example, Google anticipates the granddaughter’s needs before she even can articulate them. Her search terms move from vague to specific: “park…

Pride Month & Prejudice; ‘Worrisome Time’ For LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…implementation of Islamic bylaws by regional governments. In less than two weeks, two young men were seized by vigilantes who burst into their home in Aceh province, then taken to authorities who caned them for having homosexual sex. In a separate incident, later in the month, attendees at an alleged gay party in a Jakarta sauna were arrested and images of their faces were disseminated online by Indonesian police. Homosexual sex is not illegal in…