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The Way of the Brother: How Critics Missed the Boat on Tree of Life

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…plausible. In fact, many of Malick’s films—in terms of cinematography, mise-en-scene, soundtrack, and editing—have much more in common with Korean Buddhist-themed films than they do with anything produced by his compatriots in Hollywood. I’m thinking here of Why has the Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Yong-Kyun Bae, 1989), Passage to Buddha (Sun-Woo Jang, 1994), and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, … and Spring (Ki-Duk Kim, 2003), a list that coul…

Unauthorized Catholic Immigrants will Renew a Christian America, Archbishop Says

By Marie Friedmann Marquardt

…f the territory that forms part of the United States. He explains (with not-so-subtle reference to our current political landscape), “Long before the Boston Tea Party, Catholic Missionaries were celebrating the holy Mass on the soil of this continent.” In summary, he argues: This is the real reason for America, when we consider our history in light of God’s plan for the nations. America is intended to be a place of encounter with the living Jesu…

Atheist Rock Fest, Buddhist Geeks, Megachurch For Sale, Church Bans Fried Chicken

By Michael J. Altman

…eligious. “Hello, Buddhist geeks!” In the Phillipines, officials at a state-run cultural center decided that Christian symbols and phallic objects don’t mix and shut down a controversial art exhibit. A Mississippi pastor decided church and trans-fats don’t mix. He banned fried chicken from the fellowship hall. Atheists at Fort Bragg will get their own “Rock Beyond Belief” concert in the wake of last September’s Christian-themed concert staged by t…

Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex

By Lynne Gerber

…the false impression of scientific and therapeutic equivalence between pro- and anti-conversion therapy camps. That impression was created in part because the story ignored the freighted history of sexual reorientation practices in American life. The debates over this practice emerged in the early 1970s, a time when ineffective and dangerous psychiatric interventions into homosexuality were standard mental health practice and harmed many gay peop…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…nd one of my former clients was interviewed for it. Here is what Schumacher-Matos surmises: In 2009, a task force of the American Psychological Association came out clearly against trying to convert someone’s sexuality because of its harm and ineffectiveness; we are who we are and homosexuality is not something to “treat”. But at the same time, they acknowledged that acting on same-sex attractions is not appealing to all who have them. The task fo…

U.S. Envoy Minimizes Mounting Evidence of Mass Graves in Sudan

By Frederick Clarkson

…ts. Eyewitnesses cited by the SSP and the UN among others, state that house-to-house killings resulted in bodies being disposed of in white tarps or body bags throughout the city, then collected by the Sudanese Armed Forces in white trucks like urban trash collection here in the United States. Bishop Andudu told RD in an interview, for example, that a member of his congregation told him that he saw bodies wrapped in white body bags or some sort of…

Pastafarian Rights, Israeli Rosa Parks, Orthodox
Jewish P.I.

By Michael J. Altman

…vin is Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish private eye. A four-alarm fire engulfed a 110-year-old synagogue on New York’s Upper East Side Monday night. The building was empty and under renovation at the time and the cause was unknown. A Manhattan judge threw out an ex-firefighter’s lawsuit attempting to stop the building of an Islamic center blocks away from Ground Zero. Facon offers Jews an option for making it through America’s “Bacon Boom.” Israeli “Fr…

Pawlenty, Romney Won’t Sign FAMiLY LEADER Pledge

By Sarah Posner

…n the direct line of the camera, which gives it a bit of a I-can’t-look-you-in-the-eye feel to it. It’s Pawlenty’s way of reminding social conservatives that he’s with them on abortion, gay marriage, and the intertwining of religion and politics, without having to sign the Vander Plaats document. Pawlenty must be counting on that hurting him in Iowa, but helping him later in states less dominated by . . . Bob Vander Plaats. Pawlenty’s polling in s…

McCullen v. Coakley and the Meaning of Protests

By Sarah Posner

…se changes have not made violence and intimidation disappear. During the so-called Summer of Mercy in Witchita, Kansas, in 1991, news coverage described Operation Rescue protesters “flinging themselves under cars, sitting by the hundreds at clinic doorways and blocking women from entering as they read them Scripture.” But 18 years later, during the supposed professionalization period, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated in that same city. And a sub…