Religion Dispatches
…fired pointblank into Santa’s head. With the gun powder still thick in the air, we’re told that they’re “doing this all in good fun. We chose a pinata on purpose to make sure that no one would confuse this with a real person because as Christians we do not advocate violence against real people. We abhor violence. So this is all just for good fun, it’s like parody.” Finally, he’s right – this is a parody in the truest sense of the word – meaning th…
Read More…t’s almost as bad as “Brother Sun” or “Sister Moon,” or “Brothers Wind and Air.” Really? How about “Sister Water”? C’mon. Really? Really? No no, I can top that: “Brother Fire.” Best of all: “Sister Bodily Death.” Who comes up with this crap? Oh, wait. A major Christian saint came up with that crap (Hint: He died in Assisi). As a bonus, he talked about “Mother Earth.” You may find that it’s helpful to know something about a subject before you start…
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…vidual gun owners in a lengthy and bloody campaign against the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines in order to overthrow the socialist tyranny in Washington and empower freedom loving Americans to repeal Obamacare? Not likely. You Say You Want a Revolution My point is not to conclude that the Tea Party caused the supermarket killing spree. The point is that whatever the causes of Loughner’s violence, it demonstrates the vacuity of the Tea Party’s r…
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…nce a line from Genesis where God gives to all the beasts of the field and air “every green herb” for food (Genesis 1:30). Likewise, because God said creation was very good (Genesis 1:31) there were no venomous animals or poisonous plants before Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. According to the museum, the fossil record supports all of this. Such assertions, along with charts, timelines, and graphs help foster the illusion that this is actually…
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…some time, and was not a complete secret, leaves certain questions in the air. For instance, who knew of his conduct, within and outside of the Zen Studies Society, what did they know, when did they know it, and what did they do about it? One might also wonder why there haven’t been any lawsuits, as within the Catholic Church of late. Was he influenced, perhaps, by the behavior of the 15th century eccentric Rinzai figure Ikkyu, who entered brothe…
Read More…scue founder and veteran anti-choice activist Randall Terry is planning to air graphic anti-abortion ads during the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, FOX has rejected a Super Bowl ad from an online store named “Jesus Hates Obama.” Was Mark Twain anti-Christian? Philip Yancey, an Evangelical writer popular among conservative Christians, will speak at the Gay Christian Network’s conference this year. Michael Youseff, a leader on the religious right, declared t…
Read More…al appreciation of biblical marriage. Instead, they’ve grown up “breathing air thick with a cultural disregard for marriage. Experiencing the personal benefit of having a married mom and dad doesn’t change what they witnessed—willful divorces and the suffering of the children of divorce. The result is a generational embrace of sex as a right and marriage as one of many lifestyles, rather than as the best family structure for children and a stabili…
Read More…d. It was a carnival of political will celebrating a new confidence in the air. It seemed nothing less than Providential. From that vantage point, utter depression soon entered the scene with the violent clashes erupting in Tahirir square a couple of days later. President Mubarak had delivered a rather emotional speech the night before, which tapped into a core element of the Egyptian psyche; reverence for the Father-figure Pharaoh. For the demons…
Read More…nd the vice president has named a military council to run the country’s affairs…” Egypt is a focal point for the history and development of all three Abrahamic faiths, and all three of those faiths reject the use of drugs. But last night, Egypt was high. And then, it crashed. Egyptians weren’t high on drugs yesterday, of course. But as the rumor mill kicked into high gear, fueled by leading statements from the military, as well as media leaks, the…
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…s elementally, in sections which I take to pertain to earth (incarnation), air (devotion), fire (death and dying), and the human (teachers along the path). To appreciate the grace with which the poet treats each, consider the many aspects of water he evokes: oceans, and tears, the amniotic ocean of birth, the source of great river civilizations, and water as medium of transformation (as in a drop of water becoming a pearl). This multi-dimensional…
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