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The Sacred and the Dead: It’s (Not) Just a Box of Rain

By Cathleen Falsani

…to do for you to see you through? this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago Walk out of any doorway feel your way, feel your way like the day before Maybe you’ll find direction around some corner where it’s been waiting to meet you ~ from “Box of Rain” “The Grateful Dead were more than just a band. They were their own planet, populated by millions of devoted fans.” – Martin Scorsese The Grateful Dead’s music has, for half a century now…

California Inmates Protest the Abuse of Long-Term Solitary Confinement

By Sarah Sentilles

…o might be in gangs. Though solitary confinement is often described as a “tool of last resort,” a way to handle the “worst of the worst,” the sheer number of people being kept in solitary confinement and their length of time in isolation reveal otherwise. “A common misperception is that inmates are places in solitary confinement as a result of a major incident of some kind and remain in solitary for perhaps 30 days,” Virginia Classick, the Vice Pr…

A Color-Blind America? Don’t Fall For The Okey-Doke

By LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant

…ly did not win the white vote…” (or something to that effect). I remember looking around in astonishment and raised the rhetorical question to myself “where is David Gergen talking about, because almost everyone around me is white?!” CNN was doing real-time roll calls of the states’ voting patterns. Whenever Obama was projected to have won a state, cheers rang out. When a state was called for McCain there were boos and silent pauses. I had not eve…

Creators of Missing Lowe’s Ad Tell All

By Hussein Rashid

…e the new Ladies’ Men. Even the women. They make all the American ladies swoon. RM: I am personally offended that Canadians have been stereotyped as being “nice.” My initial inclination is to refuse to answer this question strictly based on the bias of the questioner; however having said that, I have come to America, married your women, and am in the process of taking over the population with my niceness. It’s merely a coincidence. Lowe’s seems to…

Is Buddhism Opposed to Self-Defense?

By M. Sophia Newman

…ly after the Pandey murder, a situation which Nancy Lanoue, the Chicago school’s founder, compared to America in 1993: “When the Mia Zapata murder occurred… self-defense was getting attention from many folks who usually ignored it.” Lanoue (who, like Epperson, is versed in Buddhist philosophy), sees a distinction between self-defense and violence. She refers to an “ethic of least harm,” which means “using the least force possible to preserve my ph…

Why Even Progressive Christianity Must Own Its Complicity in Anti-LGBT Violence

By Layton E. Williams

…xual, transgender, lesbian, gay and queer people, those questions kept me too afraid to embrace my sexuality and come out for years. The fear, self-loathing, and internalized homophobia so profoundly ingrained took me right to the edge of depression and self-harm as a young adult. And even now, as a theologically trained clergyperson and an openly bisexual activist, the vestiges of such destructive Christian theology stubbornly echo somewhere deep…

The Sacred and the Dead: I Love You More than Words Can Tell

By David Vanderveen

…one in the 20 years since their last show in Chicago and Jerry leaving us soon after, the reality goes deeper. Words fail us when we try to describe how much the band meant (and means) to us and how much we love each other. Real rock ‘n’ roll is rooted in getting to the real thing. At its best, it’s about deconstructing previous generations, pretensions, and cutting to the bone of experience. The Dead were real. The idea of buying an album (althou…

Meeting on the Bridge: Fr. James Martin’s Ministry to LGBT Catholics Becomes a Book

By Kaya Oakes

…re Fr. James Martin began appearing on The Colbert Report, and before his books on saints, spirituality and prayer ascended the best-seller lists. Today, Martin occupies a unique place in religious media: still working a day job as the editor-at-large of America magazine (where I’m an occasional contributing writer), he’s also become a go-to explainer of Catholic issues to both religious and secular audiences. He’s so successful in this role that…

Obama Foes Misrepresent Islam with “Apostate” Tactic

By Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im

…m. These conclusions do nothing but further stereotype a religion that is poorly understood in the West—particularly in the United States. Muslims, like people everywhere, are interested in greater security, education for their children, health care and jobs. Like other Americans, they too want to practice their religion freely. That does not mean executing people who were raised in different faiths or who have, as Senator Obama did not, decided t…

WHO IS JEW RUN FOR PREZDNET?

By Evan Derkacz

…ortured grammar, asking questions that are all fairly easy to answer with Google. My sample below is Jewish, because I received a version of the email from a Jewish listserv. This was my response along with a short note: “We Jews, of all people, should understand that fear of ‘the other,’ whatever category or color, is very dangerous. ‘Never again’ is impoverished unless it’s never again for anyone, anywhere.” Now, sit back and enjoy [photo below,…