Religion Dispatches
…sterday, my mother called me in a panic. “Who won the game?!” I am looking online right now and I see that it is tied at fifteen, but I don’t know if that is a live feed. “Is it over?” Her voice was quivering with anxiety and guilt: “I was having lunch with your uncle—I forgot the game was on!” My mother waited with bated breath to hear if her favorite NFL quarterback—indeed, probably the only NFL quarterback in history she could name—had come thr…
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…ublic. The rich diversity within the Muslim community, the respectful disagreements that took place during the course of the conversations, the thoughtful manner and sensitive insights with which the topic was addressed, the appreciation for living in a country where such a conversation could take place, and the continual returning to the root of a merciful and compassionate God in building a theological/religious foundation for inclusion of all i…
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…s it takes to get us there. She is also a co-creator of Frequencies, a new online “collaborative genealogy of spirituality,” in which scholars, journalists, and artists prod subjects from Burning Man to This American Life. There has never been a better time to explore the intersection between Reverend Billy and the kind of academic discussion Kathryn Lofton has helped to forge. This summer, Billy and Savitri published a new book, edited by Columbi…
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…ed Indian-American exposure on film and TV? Real-Time Hypercriticism A few Sundays ago, I watched the premiere of the first TV series featuring American Muslims, TLC’s All-American Muslim. Reality TV, like Broadway musicals, is not my preferred genre. Yet, as with Bombay Dreams, I made an exception and watched the show—along with 1.7 million others, as it turns out. I have limited expectations of reality TV and so maybe my bar was too low, but I a…
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…f you want to find the Occupy Movement now, just go here: exile, diaspora, online, viral, on radio, at Thanksgiving tables, over coffee, in Los Angeles and Poughkeepsie and Riverside and more. Everybody wants to know where it is—and it is everywhere. On Monday night, November 14, 2011, the mayor of New York City ordered the police to evict the 500 or so overnight occupiers in Zuccotti Park. As part of the eviction, tents and computers, books and p…
Read More…submit names for proxy religious rites were required to complete an annual online training with explicit instructions and penalties for inappropriate submission of names? What if LDS Church members who use the Family Search database were required to provide an electronic signature each time they submitted names for proxy religious rites acknowledging that they agreed to forfeit access to the database if they were found in violation of the policy?…
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…e if you really want to connect. 2. Ministers-On-The-Go The location based service (LBS) Foursquare reached a milestone over the summer, topping 10 million users—a 10,000 percent increase over its member base in 2009. While there are questions about whether all those members are active, and bigger ones about whether Foursquare will be able to hold its own against LBS applications now offered by Facebook (which just acquired LBS competitor Gowalla)…
Read More…ritics have called him a bigot, a homophobe, and a spiritual terrorist. An online petition to ban an Exodus application from Apple’s iTunes store earlier this year drew more than 150,000 signatures. Apple dropped the Exodus app, saying it offended large groups of people. Oh, my—those vicious lions! Trying keep homophobia off their iPhones! Here’s a thought: Perhaps the lions wouldn’t be so testy if they didn’t have to justify their very existence….
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…ad was a deeply religious Muslim figure, and yet the outpouring of emotion online as well as the funeral and the funeral procession was not limited to the religious Muslim sector of society. As an Azhari, he was a product of the mainstream center of Islamic thought, which meant that among the mourners were a number of students to whom he exemplified a deeply religious scholar whose teachings were not limited to the mosque. But there were also libe…
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…he few people qualified to combat it. Rimer’s passing has led to an lively online conversation among Pagan and vampire groups. Many of these groups regarded Rimer as a political enemy and some individuals expressed relief that Rimer will not be holding any more seminars. However, important leaders of these communities have called for respect. One community member invoked Proverbs 24:17, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.” It is even rumored th…
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