Religion Dispatches
…e whole person. What we do as teachers is a sacred trust, and Coach Wooden did it better than any of us. He didn’t like being called “the Wizard of Westwood,” and he would have hated to be called a saint, so let us call him what he was, simply and with great pride: a teacher. And let us thank God for the life and teachings of John Wooden….
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…, the president can authorize a posthumous marriage when there are “significant grounds” to do so and the deceased person had an “unequivocal” desire to get married. Canada: Two-spirit & LGBT indigenous youth meet; Conservatives choose social conservative leader The CBC reports on a gathering of indigenous two-spirit and LGBT youth that was held in Regina in May: “The talking circle was facilitated by two-spirit elder Marjorie Beaucage, who descri…
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…hbors and neighborhoods. From Seattle and Portland, Houston and Austin, to San Diego and Birmingham, Ala., Marion advises congregations about how their buildings can belong to the broader “parishes” that surround them. Writer and musician Jesse James DeConto, who works with churches in Durham, N.C., to host a monthly Beer & Hymns sing-along at a local brewery, recently talked to Marion about how churches can offer a ministry of presence through th…
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…ssure organizations to shy away from social justice, human rights or political advocacy work. “There’s a clause looking at NGO accountability and transparency, but I think the bill is entirely looking at squeezing the NGO space and also the whole rule of law,” said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda. “It’s very vague.” Inside the bill are a number of provisions that aim to monitor potential “subversive activities” by NGO…
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…d. One cast member threw up in the dog costume he was wearing as they spun round and round, all on live television. At the time it all seemed fresh and, for many, exciting. The sex and financial shenanigans were only interesting because of the size of PTL’s cultural footprint. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I have written dense academic works, but this is aimed at a broader audience. It’s a story full of human drama. Many o…
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…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…
Read More…ld not be anything more sadistic. Actually, I became excited after I got a phone call from the agency that I chose. Turns out, this first full business day after Ramadan was also the day that they clarified for me all the upcoming deadlines. In the next week (that is, by or before September 20), all my pre-travel preparations need to be complete. It all feels rather last-minute to me. But then, maybe that’s the way it goes. No, if I had my way I w…
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…into question, along with affiliated ministries like Olivet University in San Francisco, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the Christian Post, a number of these affiliates went on the defensive. No response was more immediate, or more aggressive, than that of the Christian Post. Different Standards At Work The day after CT’s article was published online, the Post published a long piece titled, “Sources in ‘Second Coming Christ Controversy’ Face…
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…ed ribbons reappear here, there, and everywhere, sometimes (as recently in San Francisco) in startlingly huge forms. This year, for the 30th, the Smithsonian is undertaking an exposition. Alongside the NASA: Art (another anniversary linked to endings) and the ongoing celebration/commemoration of the Civil War’s 150th, the American History Museum opened an exhibit on June 3 entitled “Archiving the History of an Epidemic: HIV and AIDS, 1985-2009.” I…
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…ering. In doing so, SoulCycle is gambling that people outside of New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles (which, together, account for 95% of SoulCycle’s revenue) will be willing to drop $30+ in order to pedal in unison with strangers, listening to messages of empowerment, growth, and self-actualization. But SoulCycle is also part of a larger gamble: namely, that Americans will be willing to meld the forms of spirituality and the forms of capital…
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