Religion Dispatches
…e.” I also had one of my pre-hajj talks with my shaykh, who also gave me a list of do, persons to pray for, and some important reminders about etiquette. So I think about the Joan Osborn song. What would you ask, if you had just one question? I’ve thought about it before. And I’ve thought about it a lot. Still nothing comes to mind just yet. Last year, when a friend of mine who lives in Madinah solicited prayers from people before her fourth or fi…
Read More…but not in a road-map-with-specific-details kind of way. It is not a long list of dos and don’ts. It is an idea that there is harmony in all of creation, including human creatures, our communities, and our relationships with each other, with the rest of creation, and with the Creator. It is also about doing that which will maintain that harmony. It is an ideal. The grounds for this idea are divine. In this respect and in this respect only, can we…
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…weeks ago, and yet it persists. Hovering at #2 on the Snopes.com “Hot 100” list of the most-circulated hoaxes, this one takes the form of a Facebook post by CEO Mark Zuckerberg (and, ahem, spells his name incorrectly). Seen it on your feed lately? It states that Facebook is instituting a “No Religion” policy, whereby “anyone spreading religious beliefs” will have their account shut down and be subject to “investigation.” Because what better busine…
Read More…entional socialization. I had a guest earlier in the week and a few on the list for the week ahead. This weekend, has been pretty busy. Friday I went to an organized iftar for LGBT Muslims. Or better “LGBT Muslims and others”, because some were not Muslim and I am not LGBT. I am not really fond of the iftar-in-a-restaurant experience; but the company was great, the discussions were interesting, and it was helpful again, for me to not be always alo…
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…a biblical value, practiced by Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon… the list goes on. If religious values (which, according to dogma, are absolutely and objectively true) are to dictate civil laws, presumably we should re-institute polygamy, strip married women of all rights against their husbands, and regard women as chattel to be purchased: all of which are part of the biblical definition of marriage. Really, though, what’s most amusing about…
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…idential election, Playgirl, and perhaps a liaison with a woman from the D-List. All kidding aside, it is Bristol Palin that I have had the most empathy for throughout this last two years. After all, it’s hard to be pregnant as a teenager, and especially have the whole world find out about it because your mother is a vice presidential candidate. It’s also hard when that same mother puts you out on the media stroll hawking the virtues of abstinence…
Read More…tian Culture, “What the last few days have shown is how weak the traditionalist voice is in the C of E. When the vote on women’s ordination to the priesthood went through about 20 years ago the compromise motion allowing alternative bishops was an inevitable part of it. Today it isn’t.” Hence, I’m not convinced that the ordination of women bishops will create a schism similar to the Great Schism of 1064 that created a perment fissure between the R…
Read More…alling itself “Concerned Citizens of the United States” distributed a watchlist with the names, social security numbers, and other personal information of 1300 alleged undocumented immigrants. (Several state workers are now under investigation for allegedly using state databases to compile the list.) The Church’s compassionate but non-ideological statement reflects a deep Mormon tradition of pragmatism as well as the Church’s evolving consciousnes…
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…d, any hand, in the lack of strong, independent regulation. This is a long list with guilt flowing in multiple directions for everything from apathy to self-righteousness. Near the center of that motley crew are those of us whose lifestyles are dependent upon a ‘religious’ devotion to cheap oil. The deepest irony of all is that BP, along with the other oil companies, has come to function as a god. The truth, buried beneath all the oil and punditry…
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…ed by 15 minutes of fame or even 15 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List than by 15 years of arduous preparation in order to heal the sick? That leads us to the subject of people in Haiti who also get cancer, and how many doctors and nurses they have at their disposal, but let’s not go there. And we probably won’t. Instead, let us turn our thoughts to the poor hack writer who views another man’s sickness and suffering mainly as an opportuni…
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