Religion Dispatches
…the other piece either goes over one shoulder and under the arm on the opposite side, or, is sometimes draped over both shoulders. At certain points along the way with the hajj rites, they are supposed to change from right shoulder covered to left shoulder covered. It’s very specific and very detailed. All semblances of national or cultural dress and of class are removed. Unity in uniformity and that uniformity is very specific and very plain. Not…
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…h Gothard, has spoken at Gothard’s conferences (2009 and 2010 programs are online), and has contributed to “Wisdom Booklets” training materials that include David Barton and his Christian American history. These include The Light and the Glory, a Christian American history textbook popular in fundamentalist Christian schools and home schools. Webster’s section itself cites Christian Reconstructionist Gary DeMar’s work in “Optional Resources.” Ove…
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…e Academic Study of Religion (ASR), may be vulnerable. Last month Newsweek online launched a special section devoted to education—and, in somewhat of a shocker, offered the good news that Religious Studies is experiencing a burst of popularity on college campuses. The article, “Religious Studies Revival,” holds interest for anyone who has a stake in keeping the academic study of religion strong. And at first glance, this coverage seems like a pub…
Read More…published. Nice and glossy, more than 200 pages, with the entire text also online, and given away free in so many places I cannot count them. Propaganda for sure. My shaykh said to me, I see you made it into the book. I told him I do not need the recognition of the particular parties involved, including the neo-Orientalist scholar who edited it, to affirm my contributions to Islam (or to my faith, for both are part of my devotion to Allah). They d…
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…ext day as teenagers primed for romantic entanglements—victims of what the online soap community affectionately calls SORAS, or “soap opera rapid aging syndrome.” Yet despite all the herky-jerky storylines and production choices, one essential appeal of a show like Days of Our Lives today is its connection with fan memory. The show encourages a nostalgia for past plotlines, as well as a nostalgia for the small town life that Salem would seem to re…
Read More…wn freedom to express our dismay at those who use their freedom to express intolerance and to attempt to provoke others to violence and conflict. For those who wish to read the Qur’an online, here is a link. McGrath ends with a quote by Heinrich Heine, who said, “Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people.”…
Read More…eks ago, I wrote a blog post about the social cost of atheism. Based on an online survey, most atheists said they believe they suffer at least some stigma for not believing in God from their family, community and workplace. By a wide margin, atheists in the U.S. were more likely to feel a sense of stigma, highest among those living in the south. For instance, 57 percent of U.S. respondents said they felt they would suffer at least minor social rep…
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…hose kinds of technological questions—I don’t think he survived to see the online boom—but he might have some real questions about the kind of gizmos that I’m carrying around with me. [pointing to digital recorder, cell phone, iTouch] Walter: That’s right. I think he’s the primary voice who anticipated all of this. It seems to me he is vindicated over and over and over again, that technology is not neutral, but that it brings an ideology with it….
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…up George Whitefield. Tell them to pick up the sermons. They are available online. They are available in bookstores everywhere. The sermons that led to the American Revolution, on individual rights. Please, I beg of you. These people will take over the Internet. These people will destroy talk radio. These people will take Fox News off. But that commitment to individual liberty, and hostility to the collective, seem to disappear with the insistence…
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…or not facing up to the problem of sexual abuse. They published the letter online, reigniting the debate over abuse. Shortly afterwards, their house was destroyed in a suspected arson attack. The boy who now claims to have been abused by Yosef Kolko also comes from Lakewood. After the boy’s father—himself a rabbi—went to the police, a flier was distributed naming the father and accusing him of making “a mockery of the Torah” and of committing a c…
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