Religion Dispatches
…is morning, I thought, I don’t want to get up! To say nothing of a planned Skype appointment with some late night professor from Australia right after my little nap. I could just as well have slept on and on, I thought. But then, I also hate sleeping in the day, so it’s a catch-22. I had such a wonderful conversation with the professor that I was happy to be on my way and back to blogging, even though this is not one of my best days. That’s why I…
Read More…ave asked them to do the same and then to select a good time to talk or to skype. Then there are only one or two things that I feel I need to address before I go. In one case I have already written my concerns and now must decide what to do with them: post them as letters, publish them here, or just read them between myself and Allah. Most of my life, I am here to say, humbly has been in a trajectory that is in accordance to my best intentions. I…
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…e spiritual significance of participating in prayer services online or via Skype for Muslims who are separated from active religious communities by geography, physical limitations, or other circumstances. Sun Dial: A Mobile Call to Prayer application available for the iPhone assists Muslims around the world in participating in daily prayer by tracking “the sun’s gentle movement through the sky.” According to the designers of the app, the image-foc…
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…and white outfits on the same day). In reality, I had interviewed Mpofu by Skype when she was still in Harare, and she had invited me to the Kentucky conference. Even though she knew I am not a Christian, Mpofu asked me to come forward so she could lay hands on me. I hesitated: I don’t believe what they believe; would I mislead them by letting her do it? On the other hand, it had become part of my reporting, and I was, no doubt, intensely curious…
Read More…ding around Wyoming in a well-appointed bus. He spoke with me recently via Skype from the front seat of his Suburban as his wife drove him to another campaign engagement. Chris, a very amenable guy, is not only running for congress, but teaching SIX sections of Political Science at Casper College. That would be yeoman’s duty without running for congress, but in an election where his opponent has about 40 million to spend, it’s a bit daunting! Stud…
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…19-year-old boy’s name was Kamal,” Asif explained to me in English over a Skype chat. “I talked to him very politely, trying to understand what they want from me. We had a little chat about religion and humanity.” What Asif learned is that his would-be murderer, ten years his junior, did not want anything from him in particular, declining even a neighborly offer of food between the bars. Kamal and the other young incarcerated members of Banglade…
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…d beyond. They took some time from their busy touring schedule to chat via Skype about this accidental movement that’s now becoming a global phenomenon. Is this how you envisioned Sunday Assembly playing out when you launched your first service in London in January? Pippa Evans: No, we didn’t think it would take off this fast and that we’d be touring around the world spreading the word of the Sunday Assembly. We thought this would take a lot lon…
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…for the elderly, or the dynamics of personal relationships conducted over Skype, even though these changes have a bearing on the way we relate to other human beings. As an alternative to this silence, Staley’s work touches on two possible modes of religious response to technology, which I’ll call—because sci-fi topics deserve sci-fi names—the Strong and Weak Theories of Theorobotics. The Strong Theory, which occupies the balance of Staley’s disse…
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…the organizer is fearful enough to keep his identity secret, speaking via skype from an underground gay club. Russia: Teen Support Group Leader Charged Under Propaganda Law At BuzzFeed, Max Seddon reports on Russian officials charging a support group for LGBT teenagers under the country’s anti-gay “propaganda” law. “On Monday, Russia’s state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, announced that it was charging journalist Elena Klimova, the group’…
Read More…life, and the first time they met with LGBT parents, too,” Dinh said in a Skype call from Ho Chi Minh City. “We told our stories because we wanted the government to understand the difficulties our children face in their daily lives… I think that the officials understood and felt empathy for the PFLAG members and for the LGBT community.” India: Recriminalization of homosexuality leaves gays vulnerable to violence, blackmail Reuters reports that th…
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