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After Mumbai: Winning the Global War on Terror

…wars; both have nuclear weapons aimed at the other. Speaking by satellite phone, one of the attackers explained that he loved India, but that Muslims could not stand by while their mothers and sisters were killed. This indicates that revenge was one of the motives for the attacks. One of the consequences of this cycle of violence is that Mumbai is now a highly segregated city, so much so that Hindus now refer to traveling to a Muslim area as “goi…

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Trayvon Martin and American Exceptionalism

…even have the courtesy to check Trayvon’s phone for his mom and dad’s telephone numbers because it’s just a black criminal’s body to them. While Zimmerman the trigger man slept in his bed, the police ordered a drug and alcohol test for Trayvon’s lifeless body. A black body that was representative of evil against the whiteness of George Zimmerman. I hesitated to write about this story, because there are many good stories about Trayvon and his pare…

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Texas Scold ‘Em: Conservative Christians Go on Offensive in Critical Textbook Review

…id. The topic of Christmas had already been part of a 6th grade geography class on world religions that included two Christian holidays (Easter and Christmas), two Jewish ones (Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah) and the Muslim observance of Ramadan. In an effort to streamline the curriculum guidelines, the committee proposed listing only one tradition from each religion. Rosh Hashanah and Christmas were dropped. But Staver and Huckabee may have a short…

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When Satire is Redundant

…Mormon culture was fair game.  Some of the pieces I wrote had titles like “Vegas Win Attributed to Obedience to Law of Tithing” (because Mormons aren’t supposed to gamble, and obeying one rule while breaking another is morally iffy) or “Relief Society Counselor Asks Sisters to Cultivate ‘More Appealing Problems’” (based on a woman I knew who complained about how she disliked helping people with “unappealing” problems—like there are really any othe…

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Eat, Pray, Double-Standard

…indulgent. And yet … we watch films about men going to bachelor parties in Vegas, spending ridiculous amounts of money, and engaging in hedonistic debauchery and do not pause (yes, I mean The Hangover). Those critical of Gilbert’s quest appear to be falling into the stereotype that introspection and pleasure are frivolous acts — for women. Gilbert has a spiritual awakening in India, having travelled to the ashram of her ex-boyfriend’s guru. Ultima…

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In the Aftermath of the “Himalayan Tsunami”

…ds, and bridges. It is too early to know how many people have died but the number will probably be in the thousands. The numbers may be low compared to global-scale disasters of recent years, but there is a wrenching poignancy to what is happening in Uttarakhand right now. Many of the forces that frame daily life in South Asia are suddenly on display like a raw wound: the wages of development and globalization, the power of the natural world, divi…

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The Sacred and the Dead: Operator, Can You Help Me?

…connection, once burning with possibility and joy, began to cool, as cell phone calls dwindled and numbers eventually changed or were disconnected. As our shared realities drifted apart in their likeness, like Pigpen, I also turned to technologies that promised connection to try to tamp down the yearning and temper that sense of loss. Where Pigpen called up the trusty telephone operator, I did my pining alone, with only the camaraderie of a searc…

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On Pi Day, Puzzling Over the Most Famous Transcendental Number

…Physicsworld.com user asks, “What could be more mystical than an imaginary number interacting with real numbers to produce nothing?” Where infinity merges with the earth When you dig into pi, you encounter questions that are as much theological as mathematical: is there a pattern to the universe? Or is it fundamentally random? And how do we reckon with the infinite? Some people have always insisted that there must be a pattern behind pi. If only h…

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Religious Exceptions Not So Exceptional According to New Study

…most Catholic health care institutions have accepted the accommodation, a number of the nation’s 260 Catholic institutions of higher learning as well as Catholic nonprofits are seeking a broader exemption that would in effect bar their insurers from providing contraceptive coverage as specified under the accommodation designed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a consolidated case challenging th…

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Malta Adopts Marriage Equality Over Objections of Catholics and Evangelicals; And More in Global LGBT Recap

…eo-Nazi groups are among those who reportedly took part in the protests. A number of people were injured during the clashes. Activists also claimed they were attacked by religious groups on the street who accused them of pedophilia and used homophobic slurs against them. The Chilean LGBTI movement has held public demonstrations for nearly two decades, but Monday’s clashes are the first time the police have made arrests at them. Representatives of…

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