Religion Dispatches
…parate research project, I stumbled across Wilson Yates’ article on the religious significance of Francis Bacon’s paintings which led me to a reproduction of Bacon’s Painting (1946), which led me to catalogues of Bacon’s work. I was absolutely enraptured by their difficult beauty. I was curious about my reaction to them, about why I was so taken by these paintings when many friends had strong negative or simply neutral reactions. I also needed to…
Read More…wait until we prostrate then switch it off while still in the bag. Phew! Minimal damage, I hope. No chance. Ms. Niqabi asks me first do I speak Arabic. Then, noticing my nametag, she asks do I speak English. No friendly greeting seems eminent. I said, “Yes, I speak English.” She asks if my cell phone ring has music on it, then she informs me that it is haram to bring music into the mosque! I told her, “Well, that may be so, but I don’t think that…
Read More…Brian Kaylor last month broke what was probably the most under-noticed religion story of the campaign season. He reported that a group of about 80 pastors and other conservative Christian leaders met in Texas, under the direction of televangelist James Robison, to continue to plot what Kaylor describes as a “behind-the-scenes strategy” to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. In the second part of his two-part article, Kaylor reported: A group of pastors…
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What would happen if you planned an elaborate bus tour through 20 cities over the summer in an effort to stop the legalization of gay marriage, and no one showed up? Ask the folks at the National Organization for Marriage—because they know. So far, the group’s “One Man, One Woman” Summer for Marriage Tour 2010 has drawn tens of people at each stop, including one in Indianapolis today. Courage Campaign staffers who attended today’s rally reported:…
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…hills, I fished in my bag for the tiny microphone I planned to use with my iPhone, to record our conversation. “Is that what you’re using?” he asked, with great interest. He held up his own phone. “I just got one of these. Will this really work?” He sat next to me on the couch as I pointed him through the app store on his phone. “There it is,” I said, pointing to iTalk. “That’s what I’m using.” He tapped the screen, but the app that came up for do…
Read More…e group’s ongoing effort to find some state willing to pass legislation defining fertilized embryos as legal, rights-bearing persons. (Disclosure: I live in Oklahoma and have been involved, in a volunteer capacity, in some of the efforts to defeat this legislation.) Personhood USA appears to have learned one lesson from its recent loss in Mississippi: ballot initiatives carry risks, and payoffs, that bills in the legislature don’t. In Oklahoma, th…
Read MoreIn Hollywood, apocalypticism sells. Audiences delight in seeing our world destroyed, and recent films have sought to cash in on that oblique eschatological hope. Southland Tales and The Omen tripped over their own quotations of Revelation, but other stories drew more subtly from apocalyptic tradition. Children of Men and V for Vendetta were cryptically anarchistic depictions of Babylon’s destruction. By comparison, this year’s I Am Legend was an…
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…“A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.”) Critics of the game have called it “completely vile,” in “bad taste,” and an attempt to “denigrate and mock the Bible.” Or as one member of BoardGameGeek.com explained through the site’s “Geek Mail,” “I simply want nothing to do with a game that ridicules and makes fun of personal, deeply held beliefs, no matter how much the game’s designer claims ‘it’s all in fun.’” But not…
Read More…eyes in all the things that we were praying for. It gave me a sense of optimism that has carried me throughout my whole life. For many years, I felt like there was no other option for gay Mormon people than to discontinue activity in the LDS church. I completely understood why they couldn’t be a part of LDS Church life, and I felt bad about it, but I felt that’s what had to happen. Then as my children started growing up—my kids are ages 13 to 27—…
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…minance and prestige with Islamic civilization. Since the end of World War II, but even more since the end of the Cold War (1989), the defeated Islamic forces seek revenge from the margins, whether through terrorist activities or public demonstrations. While the Arab Spring may seem to have boded change, it was just a temporary blip according to the rage advocates, and now we see further outbursts of what remains a fierce, simmering rage against U…
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