Religion Dispatches
…hen Communist, still has the distinction of being the only Muslim-majority city to host an Olympics) and then, under a decade later, its near-ruin. Serb forces took those same heights in 1992, initiating the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. The city’s residents were reduced to fish in a barrel, up against the former Yugoslavian military, the fourth largest land force in the world, dominated by Serbs and designed to defend the former…
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…historically and predominantly African-American region—the largest in the city—so the prospects of cooperation between the two communities was vital. “Both communities have been willing to be in a relationship; it’s just that [the] process has needed assistance, and that was vision of Father Vien,” says Denise Graves, an African-American community organizer for the Micah Project. “He was in the middle of a black community but they weren’t having…
Read More…who also provide crucial financial support to keep the building open? The City of London Corporation, who might or might not have legitimate concerns about an open-air encampment? The protestors themselves, who might be damn dirty hippies, or who might be modeling the social concerns of Christ himself? It’s a fearsome balancing act, and not one I would be eager to have forced on me. Rev. Fraser has clearly decided that the church’s primary respon…
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…I read it in order to understand my father. He grew up bookish near Archer City and became an uncommonly nonjudgmental Methodist pastor. To say the novel is about loss is to state the obvious. It’s in the title. What film critics mistook as a moral core to “Hud,” in the form of the aging rancher Homer, McMurtry shifts to Sam the Lion, owner of the poolhall, picture show, and café, who dies two-thirds through the book. The sagacity Sam holds is act…
Read More…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…
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…(all male at that time) standing and bowing in prayer. I left the ancient city only twice in my Thanksgiving day weekend visit, once to mail T-shirts to my children at the local post office and once to see the sunrise over that golden dome. And where did I do that but from the Mount of Olives. I was reminded it is not just the building we erect, in all their splendor, in celebration of the sacred event or person (because Jesus was laid to rest on…
Read More…nt their pastors to be able to endorse political candidates. An increasing number of Americans say they want more religion in politics. Pew reports that nearly half of Americans say churches should express their views on political issues. There are still many who support the idea of separating church and politics, of course, but it’s not like this law is actually working. One doesn’t have to look further than Houston to find pastors engaged in pol…
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…d residents and provide shelter to families displaced by the fires. As the city burned, he inspired congregants to act as a human shield between rioters and firefighters attempting to quell the blaze. Now on the cusp of Donald Trump’s inauguration, we find ourselves at another tipping point, with many African-Americans asking themselves the same question James Baldwin did in 1962: Do we really “want to be integrated into a burning house?” I met wi…
Read More…perform or enter into a same-sex marriage. South Korea: Protesters occupy city hall after nondiscrimination charter dropped LGBT protesters occupied City Hall in Seoul this week after the government dropped plans to enact a human rights charter that would have banned anti-gay discrimination. According to Pink News, the charter was to have been enacted on Human Rights Day – December 10 – but “after it picked up flack from church groups and conserv…
Read More…o dive into matters of Catholic doctrine, a group of Catholics from Kansas City, MO, has petitioned Pope Francis to remove a bishop found guilty of concealing pedophilia, the New York Times reports. The request was made by 13 parishioners, a nun who coordinated victims’ assistance for the Kansas City diocese, and a priest, the Rev. James Connell. It was backed by an online petition signed by 113,000 Catholics. They asked Pope Francis to remove Bis…
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