Religion Dispatches
I raised a glass of George Dickel in honor of Merle Haggard the other night. The country legend, who died last week on his 79th birthday, was an enthusiastic endorser of this brand of Kentucky bourbon, you see, until they sold out to a corporate conglomerate. It was an appropriate match. True, the drink is smooth on the surface, where Haggard was gritty, but underneath, the man and his drink share strength and fire. You don’t water down the good…
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The Human Rights Campaign held a Global Summit this week, bringing together activists from around the world. U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice and U.S. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry were among the speakers. Transgender Day of Visibility March 31 was commemorated as International Transgender Day of Visibility. This week, Muslimgirl.com published an interview with Mahdia Lynn, founder of the Transgender Mus…
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This week, Utah and Idaho delivered Bernie’s largest margin of victories in the Democratic primaries since Vermont—with both giving him nearly 80 percent of the vote. The record turnouts in many Mormon-dominated precincts shocked onlookers and bewildered volunteer organizers, who continuously rushed to print more ballots after running out several times. In Utah, voting lines stretched around several city blocks, districts that were used to double…
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Last month, the Broadway cast of Hamilton dazzled with a live Grammy performance, and last week they made it to the White House. Hamilton is a game changer, but not just for theater—I believe that the show has something to teach the church. Let me start by saying, I’m a musical theater baby. I did not always connect with the things I was “supposed to” as a black girl, but I always found a home in the world of musicals. And Hamilton has gripped me…
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Nearly a year has passed since Freddie Gray’s murder by Baltimore police officers ignited outcries that roiled my city for weeks. Though the camera crews have moved on and the curfew has been lifted, the protests kicked up a dust storm that has yet to settle. Failures—long-ignored—were thrown into sharp relief, and a beleaguered Charm City was forced to acknowledge its demons. The question of food justice quickly came to the fore during and after…
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The massacre of 49 individuals in an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12 has ignited a fierce and ongoing public debate about whether anti-LGBT laws and rhetoric lead to violence. Yesterday’s New York Times lists some of the more horrific statements made by Christian pastors, like Tempe, Arizona’s Steven L. Anderson, whose only objection to the tragedy was that “they should have been executed by a righteous government.” Both conservative religious f…
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Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill met in Cuba last Friday, the first meeting between the heads of the two churches since 1054, and they declared, “we are not competitors, but brothers.” The Washington Blade’s Michael Lavers reports on a joint declaration on marriage they signed. “The family is based on marriage, an act of freely given and faithful love between a man and a woman,” it reads. “It is love that seals their union and t…
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As the choir rehearses before St. Monica’s Sunday evening Mass, two blond women in skinny jeans slide into a pew in the rear of the church and chat quietly. A few pews back a woman wearing a mid-thigh length dress and a long sweater genuflects before beginning to pray. Before long, the church is filled with attractive people under 40. St. Monica Catholic Community is a destination parish for young adults in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with a r…
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It’s early, the sun not yet high enough to pierce the LA skyline, when Kat gets up to meditate. She spends half an hour cross-legged on a low wooden stool—yoga mats are harder to get up from at her age, she jokes—and then gets ready for the day. As she’s finishing up her makeup with setting powder, she chooses a clear crystal bindi from her collection and carefully sticks it on. “It centers me. I know I’m gonna be rushing through the day, so this…
Read MoreNext week’s New Hampshire primary will be the first test of Donald Trump’s staying power in a true primary and right now he holds a commanding lead. If the Trumpster holds sway in the Granite State, the Republican primary calendar moves southward to states like South Carolina, where Trump is polling well. But Trump’s momentum and the structure of the GOP primary calendar could be hiding a potential weakness for Trump that may hurt him both in an…
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