Religion Dispatches
…10% Muslim. Even if Pakistan and Bangladesh are counted as part of larger South Asia, only 1/3 of the population is Muslim, spread through the north, the center, and the south. There is no universally recognized command to convert and/or kill. 3. Muslims do not condemn terrorism. Part of moving beyond this simplistic idea of Muslims is to move beyond simplistic pronouncements. Muslims are constantly condemning the violent acts committed in the na…
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…s from some who reside in the Mount Vernon School District in conservative south-central Ohio. Last December she and her husband Steve accused a popular 8th-grade science teacher, John Freshwater, of using an electrostatic device known as a Tesla coil to brand a cross into Zachary’s arm [see image above]. They say the burn, which in photos show an 8-by-4-inch mark on his forearm, raised blisters, kept their son awake that night, and lasted for sev…
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…rst time. These are the type of experiences that shaped me, that shape all Southerners. In Sacred Cause Desmond and Moore argue, with overwhelming evidence, that Darwin, too, was immersed in issues of race from the day he was born, and that his abhorrence for racism shaped him and the theories and ideas for which he’s famous. Darwin, as we see in Sacred Cause, following in his grandfather’s and in-laws’ footsteps, was a passionate abolitionist. Bu…
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…ewish brothers and sisters, who are with me on Darfur, who were with me on South Africa, can’t bend themselves to deal with injustice to the Palestinians,” said Reverend Dr. Susan Andrews, a former moderator of Presbyterian Church USA who dealt extensively with the American Jewish community during the divestment controversy. “I just never understood it… Part of what needs to happen is a conversation about what justice means. We need a conversation…
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…Various forms of the sweat ceremony were used by Indians from Canada into southern Mexico. In the south they’re called temescals and resemble a wet sauna or steam room; tribes in the American Southwest have dry sweats that feature heated rocks but no water, or a fire built inside the sweat with a smoke hole in the center of the lodge. The version that Ray and his followers used in Sedona is considered Plains style, where rocks are heated to glowi…
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South Dakota Rep. Don Kopp doesn’t believe we descended from apes, but he claims that’s not why he wrote a resolution to cast doubt on climate change. His feelings on climate change, he says, have nothing to do with evolution. Still, the connection is hard to ignore. Last month, Kopp successfully led efforts to adopt a resolution in his state calling for a “balanced approach” to global climatic change in public schools. As Donald R. Prothero, Occ…
Read MoreAs The Book of Mormon: The Musical by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker prepares to open March 24 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, many Mormons are bracing for what promises to be an irreverent send-up of our distinctive history, culture, and religious practices. I’ve heard others muse aloud that this may be our own twisted version of a Fiddler on the Roof moment—a moment when Mormon culture crosses over into the American pop cultural…
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…Howe) in his unsuccessful bid to be the Republican nominee for governor of South Dakota [See Mark Bergen’s earlier post here —Eds.]. According to his Web site, Howie is a realtor and “The Tea Party Republican” candidate for governor. His positions appear to be boilerplate hard-right conservative (guns, “pro-life,” “traditional values”), although if his mode of governing in any way resembles his dysfunctional Web site, the people of South Dakota wo…
Read More…make. One year, I went to my favorite mosque out here and they had a young South Asian hafiz leading the tarawih prayers. It was great for him, I guess, to be able to get that annual review, but his recitation was horrible. Not only did he sound like he had marbles and salt water in his mouth: swallowing vowels and spitting out consonants, but he had no phraseology. I mean there is meaning in this text, and beautiful recitation, or tajwid, as any…
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…oesn’t flinch when approaching difficult subject matter. From the Jim Crow South to the Rape of Tamar in the Bible, Button’s work presents a complex and fresh artistic vision. Her Hymnbook Project features pages from old hymnbooks with hand-drawn images overlapping on the pages. Most recently, she has created works based on peace summit she attended in Kenya. The summit was organized by the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Lut…
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