Religion Dispatches
…cle didn’t mention one. So I e-mailed my colleague Bill Toland, who is the spirits and libations reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for some suggestions. Toland contributed the following: Death in the Afternoon A recipe verified in the 1935 humoristic celebrities’ cocktail book titled ‘So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon’ edited by the famous journalist and author Sterling North and Carl Kroch. As Ernest Hemingway wrote of the drink…
Read More…uding Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s infamous SB 1070. In June, LDS Church leaders issued an official statement that attempted to strike a balance between these factions: officials expressed concern for humane treatment of immigrants and their families and caution about the history of mass deportations, especially those where “race, culture, or religion are involved,” while also noting what they called the “destabilizing…
Read More…y Bosnia becoming a home for many such Western Muslims, ourselves small in number, eager for a cultural reference, and desperate for a relevant and rooted spirituality. While southern Spain has that kind of draw, it cannot help but evoke a vanished people whose absence deflates every present moment. And though Turkey will have impact enough on Islam worldwide, it is too big, too overwhelming, and perhaps not quite Western enough to do what Bosnia…
Read More…that evolution if you only listen to the speech of high-ranking LDS Church officials. Thirty-five years ago, LDS Church leader Elder Boyd K. Packer stood at the pulpit during a worldwide Mormon conference and related how he once congratulated a Mormon missionary for assaulting his missionary companion after a perceived homosexual advance. Last fall, at a worldwide LDS conference, Elder Packer delivered another controversial talk on homosexuality t…
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…Reformation, a group that sees itself creating a new church and an army of spiritual warriors who will hasten the return of Christ by taking dominion over the earth. But the Seven Mountains framework has also become a sort of lingua franca among the religious right, forming the basis for Janet Porter’s May Day rally on the mall last year as well as the National Day of Prayer and Jim Garlow’s Pray and Act campaign. The Family Research Council and p…
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…sibilities, nor can gays take the publishers of Leviticus to court for the spiritual affront to them that it surely is. Skeptics and heterodox believers, on the other hand, do have an Article 18 right to live and speak according to their conscience even when it offends the orthodox. Paragraph 32 of the new comment also cautions states against employing a narrow notion of so-called public morals to restrict speech, effectively ruling out laws that…
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…r a national time of fasting and prayer, events President Adams endorsed in 1798 and 1799. While it is true that Adams declared these national fasts, he later regretted it, telling good friend, Benjamin Rush, “The National Fast, recommended by me, turned me out of office.” Whether Adams fell from favor over a prayer day is a matter of historical dispute. However, it is quite clear that Adams reevaluated his support for religious declarations. Gov….
Read More…ment has fixed the media glitch we noticed here more than a month ago: the official Huntsman campaign website still does not show up in the first page of Google results from a “Huntsman president 2012” search. (Search engine optimization, people! Seriously!) Finally, I’m wondering if Jon Huntsman Jr., a Republican moderate who has made a career by strategically blending in, will adapt to this “aggressive” “contrast” business. Sad to say it, but I’…
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…ntoninus was the premier moral theologian on the subject of sex and marriage. He approved of early abortions when necessary to save the life of the woman—a large category in the medical and hygienic conditions of his day. Far from having been condemned he was canonized a saint in 1523. His feast day is on May 10. I would like to raise funds to make 3,000 statues of St. Antoninus to send to all the world’s Catholic bishops, with an extra large one…
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…o and his honor and stature was such that they couldn’t resist. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, women used to lead their marches! This is just incredible. What power and influence he must have had to convince them to allow that to happen! Did that lead to a large scale change in the way that women were perceived in Pashtun society? No, probably not. Did that perhaps lead to a small, tiny change? Hopefully yes. If we leap forward to what’s happening…
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