Religion Dispatches
…probably conjure up images of a dark and smoggy sky when they think about air pollution, in fact indoor air pollution may be nearly as dangerous as outdoor pollution, particularly in developing countries where people routinely burn coal and biomass fuel for cooking and heating their homes. Indoor air pollution also provides the context for one of the most bizarre examples of a religious practice that has created environmental problems in the Unit…
Read More…that discriminatory remarks on the basis of sexual orientation are against Air Force Policy. He should also have known, while Air Force members do have the right to speech and religion, that right does not mean airmen can say whatever they want, whenever they want.” Ouch. However, the military determined neither Monk nor his commander would be punished, which is kind given Monk’s very public, very willful attempt to tarnish their reputation. Perh…
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…and don’t know to whom we can direct our displeasure. That’s why you have customer service institutions, so people know to whom to send their email or letter of complaint. (Well, you don’t even know who receives this stuff.) All of this, to me, again, is a result of the difficulties of dealing with amorphous institutions that don’t have clear boundaries. And then, of course, you have that same difficulty with blaming (or praising, for that matter…
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…the wellspring of originalist jurisprudence and legal conservatism in the United States. After flying for decades under the radar, the Federalist Society’s role in the selection of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to fill Supreme Court openings during the presidency of Donald Trump elevated its profile, putting it squarely on the media’s map. What’s less well known—by pretty much everyone who isn’t part of the legal conservati…
Read More…former Lt. McClary’s self-admitted “message” makes it quite clear that the United States Air Force Academy’s primary mission of pristine and peerless character and leadership development for its cadet population, and concomitantly cultivating excellence in integrity, courage, honor, trustworthiness, and responsibility amount to absolutely nothing at all in the eyes of his own version of fundamentalist Christianity. Notwithstanding achieving its ow…
Read More…Cake — Caroline Mala Corbin (@CarolineMCorbin) January 21, 2015 But if the customer tells the baker they want the (undecorated) cake for religious reasons or a religious event, like the hypothetical Church prayer group in my example above, I’m not sure that the fact that the baker has a political objection to the customer’s religious beliefs means that refusing to bake the cake isn’t arguably religious discrimination. There’s an ongoing question i…
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…spiritual recompense. In the video message that was played before my last United Airlines flight, you expressed your desire to greet each and every passenger; you invited us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. If I could greet you now, I would want to know: were you unaware of the monstrosity that was about to follow? There, rising above the hiss of the pressurized air, as the video monitors snapped to the image of an engorged sun bursting…
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…d 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 accepted $100 in travel vouchers from a frie…
Read More…ied, which makes the claim that this evidence is “totally at odds with the Air Force’s new official explanation” willfully misleading. From the beginning, the Air Force claimed they moved up Monk’s redeployment when his replacement arrived early, making Monk’s continued presence in his old unit unnecessary and redundant, whereas he was needed in his new unit. Monk has, to the best of my knowledge, not responded to this charge. It’s apparent here j…
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…s a willingness to frame spiritual practice or ethical action as a kind of service. This service can be purchased.” There are key differences, though, between MNDFL and Unplug. Rinzler was born into the Shambhala world and taught meditation for 15 years; Yalof Schwartz decided to open Unplug before she began studying meditation at all. And MNDFL is more open about its spiritual dimensions, even if it describes itself as non-religious. Rinzler, unl…
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