Religion Dispatches
…but certainly it all has the potential to be at least good. Humans create new humans all the time. It’s how we nurture those new creations that matters. Here is where to spend our energy. I suppose you could argue, and it certainly has been argued, that ‘in the beginning’ God created everything as it is now, in which case when new things are created in this burgeoning field of Venter’s known as synthetic biology, you might be a bit miffed. But fa…
Read More…oes not presuppose or require agreement on gay marriage, but it does ask a new question. The current question is, Should gays marry? The new question is, Who among us, gay or straight, wants to strengthen marriage? Gays and lesbians have argued all along that their goal isn’t to destroy marriage, but to strengthen it—to rehab it from the ghetto Blankenhorn points out that it has become. Not everyone is convinced, of course, and while opponents usu…
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…a primarily, though not exclusively, at the state and national level. With new polling suggesting that 61% of Republicans are in favor of declaring the US a Christian nation, Hazony’s coalition may not be far out of reach. Jews in a Christian nation I ask some of the Orthodox Jews at NatCon what they think of these calls for America to be “Christianized.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, they do not share my concern that a Christian nationalist America mig…
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…red, and Art declared its independence from Religion. This created a whole new way of seeing, a new and distinctively modern culture of display, and a subtly religious perspective where the line separating real bodies from visual imitations began to blur. We live in that world of hybrid forms still today. The body is a site of conflict as well as a source of uncanny cultural production. So the body parts of the paradigmatic “man of science” are…
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…we have to be generous to the less-well-off” and turning it into something new and surprising. I am strong when I lift others up. I am good when I make it possible for others to have a good life, not when I care for my own at the expense of all others. Obama exposed two lies in those words. She showed that the conservative agenda of “I got mine, screw you, Jack” was for cowards, people too insecure in their social and economic status to make other…
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…erhood is the most visible sign of a possible role for religion in Egypt’s new political landscape. There are, however, several factions within the Brotherhood, and serious divisions on strategy. The old guard does not want to form a political party, for example, but the new Freedom and Justice Party is largely made up of independent Muslim Brotherhood members, and younger Brothers have sought to form other political parties. There is also an indi…
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…I believe this is the first time the brothers have dipped their toes into New Testament waters.” Indeed he is mistaken. The Coens love the New Testament as only secular Jews can. The first shot in Hail, Caesar!, of a wooden statue of Jesus above the altar of a Catholic Church recalls a similar shot near the beginning of The Man Who Wasn’t There, a movie about a man dying for the sins of others. And let us not forget that in Miller’s Crossing, Tom…
Read More…d others in protest of “the annual Iran-backed al-Quds Day rally.” From CIJNews, which calls itself a news source for the Canadian-Israeli community: Doc, a spokesman for Queers Against Islamic Apartheid, told CIJnews that he wants to see a boycott, divestment and sanction campaign against 52 Islamic countries, including OPEC nations, that engage in imprisonment, torture and murder of gay people. “We are a group of people made up of Kurds, Yezidis…
Read More…these. But, perhaps others in the viewing audience might be moved by this new Bible to get the job done. I do believe, however, that Vest and his organization are sincere and that they want a people to again read the Bible instead of having it collect dust on the shelf. I suppose I would be a bit more impressed, however, if proceeds of the sales of the Poverty and Justice Bible, or even a portion of the proceeds, were going to help the poor and o…
Read More…Board of Rabbis issued a statement against the hospital policy. So did the New York Protestant Council. The Diocese of New York fought to keep the policy as it was. After a 4 month fight, the Board of Hospitals agreed to change the policy, meaning that birth control would be allowed in the public hospitals of New York City. There were many fights like that. But in this current controversy, only one religious voice is being heard despite the fact t…
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