Search Results for:

cheap airline tickets to texas phone number 1-800-299-7264

The Racist Message of Do-Nothing Religion, Courtesy of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

…tern is emerging. Perhaps it’s best captured in a recent headline from the Texas Tribune which read, “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says America must turn to God to heal racism.” Is this the spiritual wisdom that will bring us together, or more of the same complacency with racialized religious privilege that has come to characterize today’s Republican Party? It depends, of course, on what (or who) you mean by “America.” And what you mean by “God.” Not to m…

Read More

Burying the Future: Youth Violence in Chicago

…Walcott Avenue to be exact). It’s become a statistic to keep track of: the number of school-age children who are murdered, sometimes on school grounds, during a school year, which means the academic year is properly hyphenated. The punctuation gives bone to the unholy facts, but it also creates another set of suburban record-keeping to conjure with. In other words, it makes the reality more abstract, a bit easier to study as citizens. I teach in D…

Read More

An American Muslim Abroad, Or, Things I Saw in Dubai

…h buildings, starting right around the same time. Talk about luxury on the cheap; it’s hard to deny a feeling of similarity. (The tower is to the Burj as a certain toupee is to hair: might the Trump Tower inadvertently mimic an Islamic motif?)   The regal twin palm trees in the foreground are the world’s tallest, at some 3,500 feet each. Recently a falling coconut crushed an entire apartment complex, punching a massive hole that has filled up with…

Read More

Teaching Love: Soulforce Takes it to the Quad

…ollege Avenue. Parke, 25, says she studied theology as an undergraduate at Texas Lutheran University before she moved to Seattle, where she now works for an agency that provides services to homeless youth. “Simply hiding out in the safety and comfort of a place like Seattle is not Christian,” she says in reply to a question about why she would leave a gay-friendly city to spend two months visiting places that actively discriminate against queer fo…

Read More

Pride Month & Prejudice; ‘Worrisome Time’ For LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

…ciety,” he said. CNN traces the start of the backlash to early 2016 when a number of political leaders began making “unprompted attacks on Indonesia’s LGBT community.” It notes that conservative Islam is a growing political force, evident in the arrest and conviction of Jakarta’s Christian governor on blasphemy charges. The report says human rights activists have been disappointed by President Joko Widodo’s “lackluster” defense of LGBT people. Sal…

Read More

Damn You Auto-Correct: Creationist Edition

…be possible is that the provision that permits “supplemental materials” in Texas is more flexible than for textbooks. Rather than meet all the new standards, the material only has to address some of them. Additionally, the materials aren’t purchased by the state, as with textbooks in Texas. Instead, materials approved by the board may be bought by local school districts. Former board member and young earth creationist Don McLeroy made clear the pr…

Read More

Don McLeroy to Receive Eagle Forum Patriot Award

…ne Star chapter of the national organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, who is now required to be in Texas’ textbooks, along with the Moral Majority. McLeroy’s award will be presented at the Texas Eagle Forum Patriot Banquet held during the annual Texas GOP Convention. Schlafly will be the banquet’s keynote speaker. And so the closed-loop continues….

Read More

Houston’s Pastor Subpoenas: A Meme Made for Fox News

…sparaged the city’s mayor, Annise Parker, because she is a lesbian. As the Texas Freedom Network reported in 2011, when Parker was running for reelection, Dave Welch, one of the subpoenaed pastors, released a video in which he said: It is astounding to have to say that most Houston citizens – including most Christians and pastors – are still unaware of the radical nature of Mayor Annise Parker’s commitment to imposing the full “San Francisco Style…

Read More

Religious Affiliation, ‘Mankind’: India’s Anti-Corruption Activist Leads Second Freedom Struggle

…good move. When I got to the lobby another something told me to dig out my phone and check it for messages. Sure enough, I had one from an unfamiliar number. A woman’s voice said Bedi was still sleeping, exhausted from the previous day’s overseas flight, and needed to reschedule our interview for that afternoon. I called the number back, convinced the opportunity was lost. “I’m here at the hotel now, but I’m booked solid this afternoon—” “Hold on,…

Read More

The Sacred and the Dead: The Trouble with Sugar Magnolia

…omething-year-old Deadhead guys hit on my teenage friends by offering them tickets to shows. Deadheads were anathema to my chosen subculture of socially conscious punks. East Bay punks were aggro and in your face about social justice, feminism, human rights; Deadheads, in our eyes, were too stoned and obsessed with their god Jerry to care. Sometimes, I’d be out in Berkeley at night, coming out of a punk show in some basement or garage, and I’d hea…

Read More