Religion Dispatches
…reas the freethinker and the comic once shared a tour schedule and booking agent, now they are bifurcated by genre and accessibility. Both are degraded by the absence of the other, as the quest for quick hard laughter and serious statistical proof press Carlin and Jacoby to extremist corners of inflexible insight. Jacoby, a self-described “cultural conservationist,” might be right that the Bush presidency signals an all-time peak in American idioc…
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…eir interaction. Like the ant colony. From the interactions of intentional agents, something emerges that is neither anticipated nor intended by those agents. And there’s a God in there somewhere? I don’t care what you call it. The problem with term “God” is too much baggage. When you use it, everybody thinks of this theistic, personalistic, transcendent God—no, I don’t buy that. The way I always define the divine is the rising and passing away th…
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…ation fees. David Koresh became aware of the ATF investigation and invited agents to come to Mount Carmel openly and inspect his weapons. When the undercover agents reported to their superiors that they had seen no evidence of illegal activity, an ATF agent wrote an affidavit to obtain a search warrant in which it was alleged that the Branch Davidians were a “cult” that abused children (although matters of child abuse do not fall within the jurisd…
Read More…f this year seeking reconciliation with Falwell, whom he had labeled as an agent of “intolerance” during the 2000 primary campaign. (McCain claimed that his earlier comments had been made “in haste.”) Far more provocative and interesting, to be sure, were Wright’s suggestion that his congregation should not sing “God Bless America”: The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God…
Read More…asion that I would be unlikely to forget. But this is only for those round numbers. There’s nothing that rings out of 58. I’ve got two more years, if I live, before I need to find the next big celebration. I’ve got time to plan still. But, why 5-year increments? Seems a bit arbitrary. Because I accepted Islam in one of those round figures, and spent the first ten years in such constant transition: first the religion itself and learning new things,…
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…of controlled power. Tomas Vergis is a pro, Joe Adama a wuss, and Special Agent Durham remains a question mark. Women rely on seduction and subterfuge. In “Ghost in the Machine,” Clarice beguiles Amanda, the Zoebot smooches with Philomon, and Lacy works to win over Keon. But the nub of othering and masculinity is enacted in Daniel Greystone—and is displayed in his interaction with the Zoebot. What fascinated me in BSG (and impelled me to watch Ca…
Read More…ol over the matter. So when I had to introduce myself I just went with the numbers as the doctor had given them to me. I’m in that pre-diabetes state, and if I get a handle on it I can avoid progression to a worse state, or stroke or death or whatever. I took her seriously when she told me and I took measures to address it before I came to class, ordering my own books to return the ones I borrowed from the library. Actually getting some of those l…
Read More…rown long ago, but the U.S. has no moral standing or credibility to be the agent of that overthrow. The U.S. interest in Syria is not perceived by much of the world as a human rights interest. If the U.S. cared about human rights, it would not have armed Saddam Hussein after he gassed the Kurds in Iraq; it would not still be arming the Egyptian military after its coup and murder of thousands; it would not be arming Israel without demanding that…
Read More…gs, he was a secret al Qaeda mole, and now, from Gaffney and WND, a secret agent of the Muslim Brotherhood. Gaffney, said Khan, “definitely believes there is good political capital to be made in scaring and fear mongering, there may be some who may be swayed by alarmist and racist assertions, and worse, he makes a good living doing this stuff. Who knew there was money to be made in being a professional bigot?” Because Gaffney’s group was not invit…
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…yone (e.g. direct action, petitions, boycotts, etc.). Instead, there are a number of important questions about climate change that scholars of religion are uniquely suited to address, and these questions cut straight to the core of the discipline. For example, how do culturally rooted value claims about justice and the common good interact in the context of climate change? Do divergent ideas about natural causality impede political solutions? Scho…
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