Religion Dispatches
…a dormitory and besides going to class and a small part time job, I was a free bird. In Ramadan a free bird, flies high on the rituals of the month. I stood for 20 units or tarawih every night that I was fasting. Like the first time reading through the Qu’ran in Arabic on my own this was exhilarating. Somewhere around 12 or 14 units, I lost track of everything outside of the recitation and the ritual performance—the zone. It was even more intense…
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…Supreme Court’s decision “attacks the seal of Confession” and that to compel a priest to testify would be a violation of both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause, subjecting the priest to excommunication. If, in fact, a court did compel a priest to break the seal of Confession that would be a radical act. Good thing the court didn’t actually do any such thing. It only takes a brief review of the facts to reveal a far more, dare I say, judi…
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…each needs the other. We’ve crowned plenty of Lords of Misrule over the past few years and, well, they certainly have proven how much they can misrule. It cheapens carnival, which is something deep, elemental, and intrinsic. There’s a necessity to the complementary relationship between Mardi Gras and Lent, a way in which both make their own promises and demands of each other, and sustain themselves in that way. Carnival in its original form had th…
Read More…think they’ve found a clever way to bring the Commandments in through the back door by invoking a “free speech zone.” They have to understand what that means—free speech means free speech for everyone. Those courthouse plazas may get awfully crowded….
Read More…and “deeply offensive to Palestinians.” They ought to be offensive to Israelis as well, but Adelson is doing his best to spread the message through Israel HaYom (Israel Today), a free tabloid that is the country’s must-read news outlet. Adelson told reporters at the Jerusalem gathering that he does not dictate the newspaper’s coverage or editorials, but that both reflect his point of view and that of his close friend, Prime Minister Benjamin Neta…
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…ehind it continues to fuel a cultural phenomenon. Since appearing in 2006, Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir of sensuous travel as road to personal and spiritual wholeness has sold nine million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. It has spawned multiple lines of merchandise, including Eat Pray Love-branded prayer necklaces ($350), Republic of Tea flavors, and fashions by designer Sue Wong. And if you are a true devotee, you can follow…
Read More…overning). Let’s hope he’s better able to do it in his second term because the divide has never been clearer: it’s between those who know and celebrate Seneca, Selma, and Stonewall and those who do not….
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…meditation on French writer Jean Raspail’s Camp of the Saints, the 1973 novel, beloved by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, that dramatizes the fear of the ‘great replacement’ of white Europeans through non-white immigration and became required reading for generations of white nationalists in the US and Europe. Warning that “the nation is under attack” by a “fifth column,” Pinkoski cites a well-known quote from prominent antisemitic French polemici…
Read More…e days come from conservative groups who depict government as an enemy of religious freedom. Among American Mormons, opposition to government-funded health and social programs is often linked with an opposition to socialism—deeply held among American Mormons since the 1950s, despite the fact that happy and faithful Mormons elsewhere around the globe live in countries where governments do in fact provide health care for their citizens. The most oft…
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…a. The Hitching Post offers three venues for the wedding: a chapel, mostly free of religious symbols but adorned with flowers and foliage; a “Western room,” with cowboy-boot-and-gun decor; and a “Victorian Sitting Room,” which also has flowers and foliage. The ministers will also perform weddings at ski resorts and outdoor locations. They have performed weddings on boats, on horseback, on roller coasters, and in hot air balloons. None of this seem…
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