Religion Dispatches
…s. I am not sure why, but the Moroccan audience—and Bab Makina has a large number of upper-class Moroccans in attendance—really enjoy gospel. It’s an appreciation that appeared to cut across generations. Based on comments I heard, people are aware that many of the songs praise Jesus as the son of God, an idea that is anathema to Muslims. Unfortunately, I could not understand the appeal, outside of the aesthetic, but it was wonderful to see so many…
Read More…RD’s Walton vows to continue the fight to keep gays and lesbians as second-class, and perhaps even dead, citizens: ”These same liberal Episcopalians and other U.S. religionists are often indifferent to international religious persecution, even when churches around the world are under attack. For them, seemingly sexual freedom is more important than religious freedom.” No, the freedom for all people to be treated with dignity and respect, regardles…
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…or example, the Baha’i and the Copts of Egypt, who are relegated to second-class status; the Ahmadiyya Community, a large Muslim minority victimized by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws; or revisionist legal scholars like Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, author of Islam and the Secular State. Their advocacy for equal treatment of the heterodox, if it succeeds, will improve the lot of unbelievers in the Muslim-majority countries, yet its animating, organizing pri…
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…, is that God really is irrelevant in the religious equation for a growing number of people. An atheist soccer fan can be religious, just as an evangelical Protestant soccer fan can be religious in more ways than one. Religion is damn elusive, it isn’t for the faint of heart, and it is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. All the yammering about “spiritual not religious” begs the question of whether the sacred is really real (as one of my tea…
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…in which the use of unequal weights and measures is called toevah. In the Book of Proverbs (which comes late in the Bible but which scholars believe to have been composed prior to the Deuteronomic and Levitical material), toevah is used twenty-one times to refer to various ethical failings, including the ways, thoughts, prayers and sacrifices of the wicked (Prov. 3:32, 15:8-9, 15:26, 16:12, 21:27, 28:9), pride (Prov. 6:16, 16:5), evil speech (Pro…
Read More…atement this past weekend in recognition of Father’s Day, he mentioned one class of fathers that no other president before him has acknowledged: gay dads. Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian. His acknowledgement of the labor of love two men may put into their relationship with their children drew quick reaction from t…
Read More…said. People seeking jobs have come from all over the Gulf region. Middle-class plant workers who lost their jobs in the recession and convicted felons recently released from prison. Mothers and sons and uncles and nephews. The work is hard. There is no shade and when the heat gets too unbearable, they can’t run into the water to cool off. They are black, white and Hispanic. I guess Kumrits and Jones fill the demographic of designated hippies. Th…
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…cluded, as well, a book review, entitled “The Ogre of Merion,” examining a book entitled Art and Argyrol; yes, about the same suburban Philadelphia man whose art collection is the subject of a 2010 documentary called Art of the Steal. Elsewhere in the magazine, science raised and answered questions that seem so contemporary: Can science help parents choose in advance the sex of their baby? The answer: not now, but perhaps before very long. That sa…
Read More…“Some on the liberal left seem to think that tax provisions in this bill should implement their particular philosophy of class warfare.”…
Read More…winter watching events unfold in Wisconsin, as teachers and other working-class people stood up to the cynical corporate-led attacks on collective bargaining rights—one of the last few ways non-rich folks can still level the playing field in this country. The day that farmers rolled their John Deere tractors into Madison in solidarity with the hardworking people who educate their children, I knew I wanted to join this fight. In Pennsylvania, the…
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