Religion Dispatches
…s! One hopes that this will be recognized sooner rather than later. To be fair, council members are appointed to one-year terms, which allows for the possibility of lots of diverse participation over time; hopefully, there will be many opportunities in the future for Buddhists to take part. There is certainly no shortage of excellent candidates to choose from—Jack Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Bishop Socho Koshin Ogui of the Buddhist…
Read More
…hing they had. Dawkins’ massively successful The God Delusion has sold over 1.5 million copies; some are claiming that it has “mainstreamed atheism” for the first time in American history. For the contenders, the stakes are ultimate: the very existence of God on the one side, the very existence of science on the other. Is it any wonder that reasoned debates—discussions that acknowledge common ground—are almost nonexistent? When we ran the global…
Read More
…nts’ contribution in taxes already balances any increased costs for public services. Imagine the tax benefit if all 12 million were legalized and all of them were paying taxes instead of working off the books. Immigrants grow the US economy already and could do so even more, if legalized. Those who are employed on the books already contribute to Social Security. Since many are young and won’t draw benefits for years, if ever, they are valuable to…
Read More
…ate and prepare him for entry into a new social and spiritual realm; in the 1600s and 1700s, these rituals created a buzz of fear and suspicion around the Masons, which only added to their popularity. Masonic lodges proliferated in America from the 1720s onward. They were a religious movement as well as a social networking sensation, a pre-electronic Facebook. At first they recruited only affluent gentlemen and professionals, then later a broader…
Read More…make such a move, but it begs the question of why it took the denomination 150 years to repent of its racism in the first place. A group of gay and lesbian activists is asking the SBC to step up its glacial pace on apologies and skip the next 150 years and get on with the business of apologizing to them now. A petition started by several organizations including the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Believe OutLoud, Faith in America…
Read More…ough the Qu’ran in Arabic on my own this was exhilarating. Somewhere around 12 or 14 units, I lost track of everything outside of the recitation and the ritual performance—the zone. It was even more intense because Michigan had a summertime fast-breaking that was well after 9 p.m. Tarawih prayers did not start until 11 and were not over until after midnight. Then before 4 a.m. the morning meal or suhur had to be completed. Since that time, I have…
Read More…y anti-Christian, and can find no deep justification but in the ideas, the spirit and the faith of free religion.” Mr. Abbot seems, on the surface, to agree with the sentiments of Goeke. The church must stand firm in its “truth” and fight this evil. Yet, Mr. Abbot understood what Goeke doesn’t—the fight for suffrage for women was not a sinful behavior. Though he can find no justification for women’s rights in the Bible, he finds his conscience is…
Read More…illiams and rubbed elbows with Stan Musial. He also told stories about his service in World War II. He said that he was one of six soldiers out of his battalion of 1,000 to have survived the war. He said a buddy named Harold Lester Brown had died in his arms on Okinawa—prayers on his lips—and that Dunn himself had helped bury the body. Stories like these made Paul H. Dunn one of the best-loved motivational speakers in the world of Mormonism. Until…
Read More…edding of a corporation’s pecuniary interest to the public’s philanthropic spirit. Hungry kids: we all know about them. We hate the idea of eight million American children living in extreme poverty. We shudder to think that as many as one in five American kids is not fed adequately and may go to bed hungry. We cringe at the idea that for so many of our youngest, getting a free or reduced-price breakfast or lunch at school is such a nutritional lif…
Read More…cast judgment on his conversion. I will keep the Diet Coke cold. I will keep the queso hot and bubbly. I will care for the children whose parents are caught up in the SuperBowl spirit. And I will vacuum up the mess when the Bowl is finally over. I may be a sports atheist. But I know when I’m outnumbered….
Read More