Religion Dispatches
…any journey reminds me of this journey, so the dream was more like a cross between some idea related to the hajj and something I thought about on this trip. I made a last-minute effort to at least buy presents for my grandsons, who already have a quite a collection of T-shirts from various places, if not from the airports on the way out of those places. It’s one of those “thought that counts” kind of things: a way of sharing something from my time…
Read More
…BC member. [I picture Richard Ross saying] “Hey young people, you’re doing better than your elected president in terms of protecting the nation.” This idea of protecting the nation through sexual purity is Cold War rhetoric. This is stuff that goes back to Billy Graham, and this is part of what I talk about in Virgin Nation, because Billy Graham would say, the communists are going to destroy us unless we get our moral house in order. But once the…
Read More
…igious beliefs, we find it offensive that people want government to either promote or attack the religious beliefs of any Americans.” This effort is partly in answer to bowdlerized Religious Freedom Day resolutions promoted by Project Blitz in state legislatures. These tend to be more acts of religious boosterism than commemorations of the legislative overthrow of the Anglican Church in Virginia or the advance of religious equality under the law….
Read More…e, Annabelle, is a particularly interesting case study in the relationship between pop culture and paranormal folklore. According to legend, a nursing student received a Raggedy Ann doll from her mother in 1970. When the doll exhibited strange behavior, a medium revealed that the doll was possessed by a dead woman named “Annabelle Higgins.” The student and her roommate took compassion for the spirit and granted Annabelle permission to reside in th…
Read More