Religion Dispatches
Who knew? Andy Stern, the former head of the Service Employees International Union who now sits on President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, said the United States needs an economic plan that does not include “worshipping” the free market. “America needs a 21st century economic plan because we now know the market-worshipping, privatizing, de-regulating, dehumanizing American financial plan has failed and should ne…
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…particular, and also among good people of all faiths: A powerfully sacred international transcript. Clergy and religious laity issued statements condemning the hatred and discrimination pulsating throughout Arizona’s Christian and Jewish communities (no official word to the large percentage of Mormons was issued). How ironic, then, that some advocates of Arizona’s SB 1070 have misappropriated Chavez in their anti-immigrant hysteria, citing the la…
Read More…religious charities. It remains to be seen how happy folks will be about “International Blasphemy Rights Day.” The September 30th event is being organized by the Center for Inquiry, a New York based atheist group. Got a problem? No time for church? Try drive-thru prayer . A 24-foot cross in Vermont pits local land-use law against claims of First Amendment Rights. And a bomb threat on Sunday at the shrine in Lourdes, France evacuated some 30,000 p…
Read More…ally a very, very fast talker. But I have to really slow down when in most international contexts. I’m used it. I started living abroad 35 years ago and so my sense of Islam in the world is shaped by the world, not just some ideal of the world. Last night and when I was in Australia, I found I got more said in a short period of time than I could in most of my professional situations internationally. It does something to free my brain. But let me n…
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…had gained the respect of the Israeli public (both Jewish and Arab) and of international disaster relief organizations. These have either used Zaka’s direct services of have emulated their techniques in their own relief teams. The Israeli police force now teats the Zaka volunteers and staffers as colleagues. And the Israeli government has recognized a year of service to Zaka as a form of Shnat Sherut—national service. This all sounds very positive…
Read More…s greater than the need of a non-Muslim. This is like the tendency in some international circles to consider the blood of non-Muslim combatants more important than Muslim civilians and combatants with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have a very different sense of the shared human community now, and we need to adjust accordingly. This year, I face a dilemma because it seems the most pressing needs are actually in my own family. Some jurists sa…
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…was expecting it would be like the perfect synch between my laptop and my iPhone. Maybe it will be, but not yet. I am just at the place where I can say, it is lighter than my laptop. Oh yeah, and I got another plus: at airport security yesterday, I didn’t even have to take it out of the bag! That was the only good thing at the airport. Ever heard Robin Williams joke about the “random” checks at airport security?’ He reads all these, clearly, Musli…
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…t purely a religious discussion. We become intensely involved in public or international debate over the dress of fewer than 2000 women in France because they choose (or are influenced to choose) to wear the niqab. The niqab covers the face, except the eyes, with a cloth; usually black and usually also accompanied by a full black garment. The burqa is specific to the regions of Afghanistan, but sometimes the term gets called in for any extreme for…
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…ng the supposedly (but not really) secular arm of Gothard’s institute, the International Association of Character Cities. As I noted there, even Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of the evangelical world, has expressed dismay over the “alarming” nature of Gothard’s teachings on authority, and allegations of physical and emotional abuse in his programs. (For the most comprehensive treatment of the IACC, see Silja J.A. Talvi’s 2006 piece in…
Read More…t the priest was forbidden from revealing the confession to administrators. Pope Benedict denounced the mafia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter thanking the Pope for denouncing the planned Qur’an burnings in Florida. In the wake of recent teen bullying, Christian group Exodus International has decided to pull its support of the “Day of Truth,” an event that encourages school students to “counter the promotion of homosexual beha…
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