Religion Dispatches
…a lot. Noah’s Ark is usually referenced today in conversations about the hazards of filmmaking, particularly in Hollywood’s early, unregulated days. Michael Curtiz was a famously rude and possibly sadistic director. He shot the flood scene below by cramming a few hundred unsuspecting extras on a soundstage and dumping five hundred thousand tons of water on them. This resulted in the severe injury or death of at least two actors, depending on whic…
Read More…e you, the reading public, cast the votes. We’d be honored if you’d take a minute to show your support for Religion Dispatches, as we celebrate our strongest year ever. With a deep roster of remarkable writing, RD’s dedication to exploring and critiquing religion in public life has made us a vital source of information—and a powerful spur to the kinds of conversations that can change culture. Thank you for reading RD, and for your VOTE! The Edi…
Read More…t his own “Act Like Men” conference, coincidentally held a mere forty-five minute drive away in Long Beach, California. So on Friday, Driscoll took a break from espousing his creepy patriarchal gender philosophy to bring a message of sort-of-inclusion forty-five minutes up the road to Sun Valley. Once he arrived, Driscoll handed out copies of A Call To Resurgence, shook some hands, and prayed with a few people. But it wasn’t long before trouble…
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…me a long time and I hope that my regret for the long journey is clearly communicated in the book. I am sorry it took me so long to put it all together. It’s like being in a movie where someone is trying to crack a safe and there’s six numbers and you have to get all six numbers right for the safe to open. I think that’s what’s happened for me. Finally, all six numbers came up and I was able to open the safe and I could see this in a new way. Tha…
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…artments are known for their fractiousness, so I have never ceased to be amazed at how well my colleagues, despite our varied interests and backgrounds, get along with one another. I have been especially appreciative of the respectful relationships that we have forged between Muslims and Jews in the Religion Department at Temple University that have made it possible for us not only to work together but to grieve together over the ongoing tragedy i…
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…es toward women as a whole, in an essay in the August issue of Harper’s Magazine. Gordon notes that Francis’ much-quoted assertion that the church has focused too much on “issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods” has “suggested the possibility of a new era for the Church, on in which economic justice would take precedence over divisive social issues.” As American nuns “have been the de facto leaders of the cou…
Read More…be trusted to see that homosexuality is wrong. I should have resigned that minute. 3. Ex-gay poster children are scripted and interchangeable: Near the end, especially with Prop. 8, I felt that I was stripped of my individuality. If it hadn’t been me at an event, it would have been someone else. When a speaking engagement conflicted with my schedule, someone else was found to be the “ex-gay” voice. There was nothing I could add or contribute that…
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…d at one point in a very literally representation. It was only at the last minute that one of our designers found this incredible picture of a young nun in Mexico up on the top of this mountain that we literally all sighed together and said: “That’s the one!” Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why? I am a huge fan of Nick Kristof’s Half the Sky and I thought about the book a lot while I was writing. In the same way that…
Read More…y is located at the corner of Kurmangazy and Pushkin streets, named after Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly and Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. An ad for the club featuring a portrayal of the two men kissing won an international award but has sparked outrage at home. Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority country; same-sex relations were decriminalized in the 1990s. A complaint that the ad insults the dignity of the nation has spurred an investigati…
Read More…r Jennifer Haselberger, oversaw a desultory abuse screening and monitoring process that allowed suspected pedophiles to remain at large in the community for years) did move immediately to force out Jamie Moore, the long-time music director at St. Victoria Catholic Church in Victoria, Minnesota, the minute he found out that Moore had married his partner the previous weekend. And while it’s true that Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, who was found gui…
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