Religion Dispatches
…mature person. Age does not make maturation, per se. Yesterday we had the best of the best; the age was augmented by the quality of maturation and illuminated by the etiquette (or adab) of simple yet deep devotion. I was, for a brief moment, at home and when this happens to me, I feel a special grace from Allah. I could just be in the midst of my own love for Allah. I did not have to fight. I did not have to struggle for justice. And even more: I…
Read More…s and coverage that oppose what most American women understand to be their best interests. In this difficult position, the best Ann Romney could do was emphasize the relational model to which political wives are so often tethered. I remember that Michelle Obama did it in 2008, describing the moment when Barack drove his baby daughter home from the hospital, so we women would see him as someone to trust. It’s a model that leads women to that close,…
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…my best friends are gay Republicans. Well, I guess I should say some of my best friends are gay former Republicans. They didn’t leave the party, they tell me. Instead, the party left them with its frog-stepping march to the right-wing fringe over the past few years. These are people who believe in fiscal conservatism, but have seen the Republicans run up record deficits. They like the tax cuts, they say, but have seen Goldwater Republicanism tramp…
Read More…ah, which ranks in the top five of U.S. states in teen suicide, though the numbers have not been verified. In response to the Mama Dragons report, church officials mourned the deaths and called on churches and family members to make LGBT youth feel welcome. Tanzania: Activist Profiled The latest “world voices” feature from Alturi tells the story of James Ouma, an LGBTI activist who speaks “against a growing religious backlash in Tanzania while he…
Read More…iscourse” by the public. “Finding a successful resolution will require the best thinking and goodwill of all across the political spectrum, the highest levels of statesmanship, and the strongest desire to do what is best for all of God’s children,” Church leaders said. Elected officials and Latino activists have asked the Church to take a more public stance on immigration in part because the immigration debate has been most heated in western state…
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…offering this hospitality? Marco Rubio said. “If ISIS is able to conduct a successful [Paris-like] operation in the U.S…. that would be an enormous bonanza for them in terms of funding but also of recruits from all over the world.” If we take seriously the idea that biblical principles aim at “the best possible life for all,” what would be the “bonanza” for “the best life” from following those principles and rescuing the refugees? I’m not making p…
Read More…ing on with stories? As a fiction writer, surely Zvan knows that, at their best, stories are not just about amusement. The best ones may actually be true somehow. Is Naff’s truncated religious story true in the way he suggests—literally, scientifically? Maybe so, maybe not. Is it true in the way he wants it not to be—poetically, metaphorically? Maybe so, maybe not. As a Christian, I think so. But Zvan differs: “We are better off treating [non-scie…
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…ese are also the sites of our most entrenched debates. This is perhaps the best context for understanding the rise of the “heaven tourism,” a genre of first-hand accounts of near-death journeys to a supernatural realm. Best-selling books including Proof of Heaven, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, and Heaven Is For Real share two elements, which are both captured in this trailer for the 2014 film adaptation of Heaven Is For Real : First, these ac…
Read More…e deal either way, Goldstein reports. As federal bureaucrats mull over the best policy, interest groups from both sides of the question will do their best to lobby them, which, as Goldstein points out, is a much more difficult proposition than twisting the arms of elected officials. But it’s difficult not to agree with Amanda Marcotte on this one: In a common sense world, there would be no controversy over including contraception in the slate of p…
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…that if the idea of genius evolved to preserve wonder, that we must do our best to develop new constructions and new ideas to best encapsulate wonder in whatever era we are heading into. Perhaps even more importantly, it’s to expand how we envision genius, and to see and recognize it where we find it. For example, the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is a welcome figure, not just for his deft explanations of complex phenomena, but because as an…
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