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Oscar Watch: Why Spike Jonze’s Her Is Not About Technology

By Daniel Pecchenino

…ia, Mormon ward, ashram, or some building owned by the Scientologists. The City of Angels was also home to one of the strangest and most important evangelists of the 20th century, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, a primitive radio god who faked her own kidnapping to cover up a tryst in Mexico. Given this history, the absence of religious landmarks is striking. It would have been easy enough to paste symbols of Los Angeles’s spiritual history into He…

LGBT Mormons Ask in Historic Temple: “If they could just see us, don’t you think they would change their minds?”

By Joanna Brooks

…had partnered with other gay Mormons. I met an older couple from New York City who are planning to marry now that the state will let them; another couple of young Mormon men from San Diego—both blonde, one sporting a rodeo championship belt buckle—are also recently engaged. Mormons often prefer to marry within the faith, after all. On Sunday morning, Affirmation members gathered at the historic Kirtland Temple, a three-story structure built in th…

Orlando Massacre and ISIS: The Illusion of Power

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…towards their headquarters in Raqqa, and their largest trophy in Iraq, the city of Mosul, is slated for liberation. Moreover, volunteers are not streaming to the region in the numbers that previously had supported the movement. Although their online presence continues to be active on Twitter and on secret sites on the dark web, volunteers seem hesitant to join a losing operation. In this context ISIS needs the illusion of power. There is no doubt…

Ground Zero is Sacred Space, But Not Just Because of 9/11

By Randall Balmer

…a school for Africans in New York City. Roman Catholics arrived in greater numbers in the nineteenth century, from places like Ireland, Germany, and Italy. As with other groups, finding their place in the rich tapestry of American diversity did not always come easy. John Hughes, who became the first archbishop of New York (and the founder of what is now Fordham University), protested the use of the Protestant-inflected King James Version of the Bi…

Will San Francisco Ban Circumcision?

By Shalom Goldman

…ing a misdemeanor. In order to get this proposal on the 2011 San Francisco city ballot, Schofield has to collect over seven thousand signatures—and thus far his campaign is not going very well. Quite to the contrary, the idea has caused a backlash, and not only in the American Jewish Community. The organized Jewish community in both California and throughout the U.S. rallied to condemn the proposed ban. Within a few days of Schofield’s statement,…

Playlist #1: Indie Rock’s Dark Night of the Soul

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…ife” (from At the Cut) Salome, “The Witness” (from Terminal) Arcade Fire, “City with No Children” (from The Suburbs) Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse featuring David Lynch, “Dark Night of the Soul” (from Dark Night of the Soul) King Missile, “Title Track” (from This is Mystical Shit) The Problem of Evil U2, “Wake Up Dead Man” (from Pop) XTC, “Dear God” (from Skylarking) Bad Religion, “Only Rain” (from The Dissent of Man) Flaming Lips, “Mr. Ambulance…

Sarah Palin’s Freedom Cookie

By Anthea Butler

…ould have been more meaningful if she had bought them to a public or inner-city school, where the gesture would count for something against “big government,” rather than the private Christian school, which was holding a fundraiser of $750 dollars a plate, plus 200 extra dollars to be photographed with Palin. At least the cookies were free, if nothing else was. The real message of Palin’s talk was her linkage of faith with public service, and that…

Hajj Journal: The Journey Begins and Ends

By Amina Wadud

…y direct from SFO to Paris. This new itinerary had me stop in another U.S. city first. Think about this—after all the excitement to get started with this once-in-a-lifetime journey, to stop again in the U.S. is the worst kind of interim re-routing. I mean, am I on my way? Are we there yet? But the Charles de Gaulle airport, which is the transit spot to Jeddah—now that is really something. First of all, there will be other pilgrims there and the ih…

If Not for AIPAC: What Ilhan Omar Should Have Said

By Haroon Moghul

…therefrom to congress with the Divine. Thus the heart and soul of the Old City, the greatest elevation of this great city, what was once the First and Second Temples, is the home of the Dome of the Rock and the Farthest Mosque, al-Aqsa. In any conversation about peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and access to sacred spaces for Jews, Christians and Muslims, this contentiousness cannot be ignored. How are we to reconcile these narratives? Fi…

The Women’s March, Anti-Semitism, and ‘The Jewish Farrakhan’

By Shaul Magid

…me have now asked both Sarsour and Mallory to step down because of the toxicity of the controversy, which is probably a good idea, regardless of whether they are guilty of the accusations made by many in the Jewish community. I personally do not think the vitriol against them was warranted. But the toxicity that emerged in light of these questions has unfortunately detracted from the important mandate of the march. Beyond that, the larger question…