Religion Dispatches
…rgins all the way to themselves. How dare he! As an academic exchange at a New York university years ago once explained to me, the reason many Jews did not leave Nazi Germany until they could no longer leave was principally because they thought anti-Semitism would never reach them. Buzzfeed has published two very important articles this week. In “Welcome to America – Now Spy on Your Friends,” Talal Ansari and Siraj Datoo report on a disturbing tre…
Read More
…mographics in the country. I mean, that’s real, not just in California and New York; it’s real in Nebraska and Kansas and Illinois. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the latest kerfuffle we have over these ridiculous completely fabricated claims about immigrants eating pets comes out of Ohio. That’s not a story coming out of Texas. One of the oldest questions we have on this subject is about what to do with immigrants who are here in the country wi…
Read More…a last-ditch effort by the Catholic lobby to rally support to prevent the New York State Legislature from voting for marriage equality. It is not a deeply-reasoned theological argument that deserves an equally deeply-reasoned response. To claim otherwise is to buy into the smoke and mirrors that some religious professional employ to ply their trade. Fortunately, we live in a society where citizens like Mr. Dolan are entitled to their opinions, ho…
Read More
…ith service of remembrance. It was a mini Parliament of Religions from the New York area, with over 600 interfaith leaders in attendance: Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists Muslims, and Christians participated, with reflections offered by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Imam Khalid Latif. All were invited to pray with and listen to the pope, who emphasized the importance of dialogue and diversity. The Pope remarked “In opposing every attempt to create a rigid uni…
Read More
…ve) is in fact the work for which Murray is most famous, or that it is, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote back in 1994, “just a genteel way of calling somebody a nigger.” Of course, as he duly notes, Sullivan is “friends” with Charles Murray and published an excerpt of The Bell Curve as editor of The New Republic (which, incidentally, alienated his entire staff and poisoned his relationship with mentor Leon Wieseltier). As one writer p…
Read More…their allies celebrated, anti-marriage forces plotted their next steps in New York, Minnesota, North Carolina, and elsewhere. NOM responded to its “betrayal” by lawmakers who had previously voted or campaigned against marriage equality by vowing political reprisals and pledging to spend $2 million to unseat those legislators. Meanwhile, the bishops, who were outmaneuvered by a straight, Catholic governor in one of the most heavily Catholic states…
Read More…evival. The 1960s and 1970s were also regarded as an occult renaissance in New York City and, in fact, the original Dutch settlers likely brought their own magical traditions to Manhattan. However, this is certainly the most stylish occult renaissance to date. A recent article in The Huffington Post profiles seven Brooklyn Tarot readers, each of which features lavish headshots, descriptions of ritual objects, and personal narratives of each divine…
Read More
…it can’t afford in any way to support an institution that might take on the Wall Streeters who stuff campaign coffers with cash. Fear of an imagined “false prophet of peace” and prophesied leader of a “one-world government” and “one-world economy” could help organize right-wing evangelicals more than outrage at the actual Wall Street crooks and economy-wreckers could help organize the left….
Read More
…o center family values while ignoring what families and their congregants truly need. How does this represent Jesus of Nazareth, who lived among and cared about the marginalized? It doesn’t represent a justice-centered Jesus, who was concerned more about people being and living well than the respectability politics of the religious leaders. Jesus constantly centered the lives of those who were considered the “least of these.” As followers of Jesus…
Read More
…ing out of their self-inflicted isolation. Reno’s initial attempt to blame New York’s “demonic vibe” on those who satanically place life over “dignity and beauty” (that is, on those who choose to stay at home and not contribute to the economy) might be discredited as a familiar attempt on the part of the bourgeoisie to shame the proletariat into returning to the factory floors. But such discourse also effectively classifies us into good citizens a…
Read More