Search for "same day airline tickets cheap phone number 1-800-299-7264"

No God but Country: The Religion of John McCain Has Something Important to Tell Us

By Kathryn Lofton

…on Christmas day, and how one guard looked him straight in the eye on that day (that holy day) and “drew with his sandal a cross in the ground.” In recent press events, this moment in Hanoi has become his road to Damascus, the tale told to shunt rumors of irreligion. Conversion narratives have become mandatory formulations in American politics, signaling simultaneously theological affinity with an important voting bloc as well as the character req…

Christian Nationalists Aim to Dismantle this Core Freedom

By Andrew L. Seidel

…Papers. At the head of this Christian Nationalist beast is Donald Trump. Today, he’s issuing a guidance to put prayer back in public schools. He’s appointed not only the Christian nationalists above, but also megachurch preacher Paula White to a White House position for which she has no qualifications. Trump held his first 2020 campaign rally at a church run by “Apostle” Guillermo Maldonado who, like Paula White, preaches the prosperity gospel, a…

God Wants You to Work Harder, and to Stop Complaining

By James Dennis LoRusso

…ader,” written by Irish poet and priest John O’Donohue. Likewise, once the day’s scheduled sessions and events were complete, participants would again meet to hear final thoughts from one of the conference organizers, followed by another closing inspiration. Such practices bestowed a structure on the conference, and transported the proceedings outside standard space and time and into the realm of the sacred, toward holy significance. The participa…

Mexican Bishops Exorcism Against Equality; African Bishops Oppose ‘Enemy of Human Race’; Israeli Islamic Leader Anti-Gay Op-Ed

By Peter Montgomery

…episcopal conferences of Africa and Madagascar. All in the clear light of day, not almost in secret like some of their colleagues from Germany, France, and Switzerland, who had gathered a few days before at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. But while at the Gregorian the objective was changing the Church’s stance on divorce and homosexuality, in Accra the push was in the other direction. The marching route was indicated from the very f…

Hicksters, Stickers, and Affection: Why I Left D.C. for the Family Farm

By Timothy King

…ound idyllic to the young, well-educated, and the restless masses of yesterday and today. But not many of us are seek employment alongside migrant laborers because of the near constant physical pain and discomfort, regular exposure to toxic chemicals, unsafe working conditions, and economic exploitation that almost certainly ensures that independence remains a dream. Working the land not necessarily the solution to breaking free from a life of “qu…

Sit Down and Shut Up: Pulling Mindfulness Up By Its (Buddhist) Roots

By Max Zahn

…n a practitioner’s experience in cultivating the technique. But for modern-day meditators, instructed in the benefit of practicing just five minutes per day, this appeal to long-cultivated expertise means little. The aims of contemporary mindfulness are very different, too. “The way mindfulness is practiced, it’s not necessarily Buddhism,” said Reverend Toshikazu Kenjitsu Nakagaki, president of the Buddhist Council of New York. “It’s used to impro…

Blagojevich Is Right

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…rnor has been arrested and will likely be indicted, he has not yet had his day in court. He is innocent until proven guilty, and thus far, all he is accused of is foul language and brazen claims of corrupt intent. No money has traded hands that we know of, and thus the nature of the federal indictment against him is not at all clear. The Governor has been tried and convicted already in the court of public opinion, and that is one reason why the st…

With the Pope at Ground Zero

By Anthea Butler

…nto the two craters left by the towers is a poignant reminder of both that day’s destruction and the endless tears that have flowed since that day. Many bought pictures of loved ones, and the pain in their faces was a reminder that is it never really over for them. For those of us who remember the homemade memorials and pictures of those who were lost in the towers, the museum and memorial grounds are a moving remembrance. So it was important then…

AIDS in South Africa: Women, the Church, and Global Indifference

By Jeanne Carstensen

…the role of churches, especially the smaller “indigenous churches,” in the day to day ground battle against AIDS is mixed at best. Here women face the brunt of what Haddad calls “a deeply patriarchal culture,” and churches (the dominant institutions in daily life in rural areas) do little to combat this. Men are assumed to control women’s sexuality and sexual practice, so “it’s really difficult for women to negotiate safe sex with a condom, especi…

Is Religion Wrecking Our Air?

By Jay Wexler

…g B’Omer, the whole country smelled like a bonfire that night and the next day,” he said to me one day when I was explaining my book project to him. “Also, my clothes smelled like a bonfire, of course, so it must require lots of extra laundering.” According to news reports, there are so many bonfires lit on Lag B’Omer that satellite images reveal a smoky haze hovering over Israel during the holiday. Scientific research has shown that visits to eme…