Religion Dispatches
…ates as a world force at the start of the twentieth century. And his first great film, Boogie Nights, is about a porn star, but also a cultural history moving from the 1970s to the Reaganite ’80s, and shifting attitudes toward sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He’s a great filmmaker, with a brilliant grasp of imagery (even the choice to shoot much of the film in 65mm is a striking one in an age of digital video), and an excellent writer who conducts…
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…to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. These Seven Promises are rooted in the evangelical perspective that man is the head of the prototypical household in which women and children follow his lead as spiritual authority. The problems inherent in this approach to manhood and masculinity have been well-discussed on RD, but it’s Promise #6, on Unity, that piques my interest here. A recent Christia…
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…hy not focus on appealing to the people who turn up to vote for you in far greater numbers? Of course, it made perfect sense for Democrats to give space to Georgia Senator and Baptist preacher Raphael Warnock to deliver what essentially amounted to a sermon at the DNC. After all, Black Christians remain the backbone of the Democratic coalition. But just as the DNC would have come off as more inclusive by featuring Palestinian American and transgen…
Read More…the U.S. and imposing shari’ah to make everyone Muslim. The Revealer has a great series on the (mis)uses of the term shari’ah that points out that there is no one thing called shari’ah, and it does not mean what its popular critics think it means. My friend Peter Bebergal has a piece on how the same sort of simplistic thinking has infected the way we talk about “kosher.” You cannot talk about the tradition if you do not know the tradition. I think…
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…real object of their animosity, sadly enough, is love. And insofar as the great awliya’, the saints of the subcontinent, as martyrs of love (to steal Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence’s expression), stand in the way of this campaign to replace love of Allah with fear and paranoia, it makes perfect sense that they’ve become its latest victims. Which is especially sad because, as too many Pakistanis seem to have forgotten, love is in fact at the heart…
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…votion within him that might better be described as religious. Cancer, The Great Icon I can’t help but like Kubota as a character. Rich’s tale makes me want to visit this guy in his laboratory, take a walk along the beach where he searches for evidence of sea creature activity, watch him sing karaoke at an academic conference. And yet, something about Kubota’s story leaves me unsettled. Call it my inner rationalist or my inner existentialist. Call…
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…ent for all Gambians. “We have great hope in the Gambia,” he said. “It’s a great relief, as Jammeh was planning to bring in sharia law. I would have been a second-class citizen.” Trump and LGBT Human Rights Writing for the Washington Post, Samar Habib reported that “the administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to reverse” the Obama administration’s role in promoting LGBT equality around the world. Indeed, many LGBT rights activists…
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…the Democratic party had more political courage. I admire the president a great deal, but sometimes I wish he’d channel his inner Harry Truman a bit more. Of course, both parties have been criticized for being in the pocket of the elites. Yes, that’s true because both parties have to appeal to wealthy supporters to run their campaigns and this does limit, to some extent, the populist voice in American politics. Is there any room, then, for those…
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…ve “national security experts” who explain that the threats to freedom are greater than ever, which is why we do need a professional army with the most sophisticated guns. But the principle remains the same, and so does the symbolism of the gun. The logical implication: If things got threatening enough, all red-blooded Americans would be willing to pick up and use those sophisticated guns. In the rush from origins to the present day, let’s not sk…
Read More…that respect for, and dignity of, every human person is encouraged. Great. Great. Problem is, this same pope remains determined to bring the “ultra-traditionalist” Society of St. Pius X, which broke with the Catholic Church over the Vatican II reforms, back into the fold. The SSPX has a, let’s say, “problematic” relationship with Jews which they seem unable or unwilling to rid themselves of. Most famously, during an interview on Swedish TV, SSPX…
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