Religion Dispatches
…frequent flyer miles. On August 21, the Chicago Tribune reported on United Airlines workers wearing orange armbands calling for the ouster of Glenn Tilton, the company’s CEO. The workers are upset about the low wages that were agreed to when the company was in bankruptcy and the multi-million dollar bonuses given to managers who led the company into bankruptcy. Workers believe they deserve higher wages and more say in the direction of the company….
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…a black-only meeting to discuss racism (in collaboration with the African-American principal of the school), particular identities were marked as not-invited—namely, white, Asian, Latino, and other non-black students at the high school. Many cultural progressives supported the meeting, claiming that power issues in the broader culture and the long history of oppression of African Americans justified creating this protected space. There is a paral…
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…Israeli left has always been more critical of the Israeli government than American Jews. “I think American Jews continue to still have a desire and a belief and a strong sense that Israel is a land of peace and does want peace,” said Grater. He added that American Jews have “blinders,” and that “we have a hard time believing” that “this great country that’s been a dream of our ancestry for thousands of years really might be doing things we disapp…
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…self-interrogation boiled, my hand extended to the right. I reached for my phone, but I found nothing. At first I laughed at my instinct, my muscle memory. The phone, with its glowing screen, gave me solace and control. But I was tied to my cushion for another hour, and in this ashram for another day, so email would have to wait. I panicked. My heart raced. Would my editor be asking for me? Would a reply from that politician’s secretary sit unansw…
Read More…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…
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…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…
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…ine Ridge border town) in 1972 after he was stripped naked, thrown into an American Legion hall, and told to “dance Indian.” It wasn’t until the American Indian Movement virtually occupied the town of Gordon that manslaughter charges were brought against his assailants. The camp lasted for a few years, though pilgrimages continue, conducted by the original occupiers and their supporters. In 1982, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation appealed the ori…
Read MoreFirst, Glenn Beck goes off the conservative reservation by declaring that same-sex marriage is no threat to America by saying: “I believe that Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If it neither breaks my leg or picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?’” Then, the notoriously homophobic Ann Coulter gets booked to headline next month’s “Homocon,” an event put on by GOProud, a group of gay Republicans. Coulter’s willingness to talk to gay Republicans got Wo…
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…and affirms the stained-glass ceiling on the pastoral role of women: “the reservation of the priesthood to males … is not a question open to discussion” (#103). Francis further worried that a discussion on women’s ordination “can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified with power in general”—as if the “reservation of the priesthood to males” had nothing whatsoever to do “with power in general” (#104). Evangelii Ga…
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…those victims who did report their victimization to Episcopal leaders, the number one assessment from both trans/non-binary and cisgender respondents was that “little or no change” came about as a result. 20.6% of transgender and non-binary survivors reported that they simply left the church altogether. By comparison, “only” 10.7% of cisgender women felt they had to leave. (Curiously, there’s no data on this front for LGB-identified Episcopalians….
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