Religion Dispatches
…h representatives turned away nearly two hundred Mormon women seeking stand-by tickets to a restricted men’s-only session of the faith’s semi-annual global conference. Mormon women travelled from as far away as New York, Florida, and Germany to take part in the collective action organized by the group Ordain Women as a gentle and symbolic demonstration against pervasive gender segregation in LDS Church administration and leadership. All observant…
Read More…iew the City Creek Mall as an emblem of savvy financial stewardship, a sure-to-be-profitable $1.5 billion investment designed to revitalize Salt Lake City’s downtown—yet another wholly owned commercial subsidiary of a prosperous multinational institution. Others express real reservations about the mall, voicing concern that a religious institution might have elected to revitalize its capital city by building affordable housing, or developing susta…
Read More…magine my surprise during a visit this past weekend when my step-dad, an 84-year-old retired tire salesman, asserted—completely out of the blue—that he could not support John McCain this year. “I’ve been reading a lot about him and he can’t do anything right,” my step-dad complained. “So, are you going to vote for Obama?” I asked quietly. He sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to.” Then he brightened. “Obama’s a very smart man—he knows a little bit about…
Read More…que the pluralistic spirituality promoted by Beck. In Howse’s view, the not-so-fictional Left Behind novels are being played out before our eyes. Pastors and evangelical leaders literally locked arms with all faiths, including Imams, in a spiritual endeavor despite the clear biblical warnings of II Corinthians 6:14… The Mormon Church is now rejoicing over the public relations success that these undiscerning evangelical leaders have handed the Morm…
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…addressed, I wouldn’t find it so disturbing. Were Detroit’s finest giving tickets to Speedo-clad gentlemen terrorizing Americas beaches and public pools, I think they’d have a case. I think it’s safe to say that for most people what is ultimately repugnant about the aforementioned policies in some Islamic societies today is not their religious inspiration, but their ultimately tyrranical nature, the imposition of the opinions of one segment of so…
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…ect. The student groups met all the university’s requirements, booked an on-campus venue, and began to advertise the event and sell tickets. Then, 11 days before the drag fundraiser was set to take place, WT President Walter Wendler, who has a record of inserting his right-wing Christian bias into his public roles, unilaterally canceled the performance via a pedantic email. Seidel tells the story of the drag show cancelation at West Texas A&M (cli…
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…instream cachet of Jim Wallis, the founder /editor of Sojourners and author of the chart burner, God’s Politics. And McLaren has friends outside the faith box too. The Sierra Club is signed up. You tell me the last time people paid for tickets to a preacher-meets-politico-meets-tree-hugger event. Observing, then, the McLaren-brand machine gurgling and chirping right along, a fair question presents itself: What’s next? Will it be possible to re-rei…
Read More…el. I’ve never been a fan of assumptions, and the ones presented by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party seem especially alarming: “unclothed” = immodest = dangerous. That’s more of an article than Rihanna putting on a longer skirt. Second, it seems hypocritical: you’ll host a concern for and buy tickets to see a female performer sing songs about things that are totally haram (according to different opinions), but not if she’s wearing clothing you find…
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…no shouted out to all of the women in his life, while reminding us that his-tory was just as much her-story. It was around this time that he made everyone feel welcome “no matter who you voted for.” (Mind you, Bono has famously banned 45 from his tour.) Three beers in, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” was exploding from the guitars. Bono wailed “shots rang out in the Memphis sky” while a montage of Martin Luther King, Jr., flashed in the background,…
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…eading room of the National Library of France, a bright, hushed room, floor-to-ceiling bookcases to my left, floor-to-ceiling windows to my right, ranks of long tables studded with wooden bookrests and velvet rolls to gently prop open the fragile parchment pages. Most of the chairs were filled with hunched-over scholars. To be admitted, I had to write ahead and state my credentials, submit to an interview, show my passport, prove myself a “scholar…
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