Religion Dispatches
On Christmas Day, 2009, as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam prepared to land in Detroit, passengers smelled smoke and heard a series of bangs or popping noises. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old man from a prominent Nigerian family, was attempting to ignite an explosive device sewn into his underwear. He succeeded only in igniting himself—after his arrest, he had to be treated for second-degree burns on his hands and crotch. Inst…
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…ty of indiscriminate violence. Too many people—not just dentists on Virgin Airlines—make statements like, “Muslims don’t do enough to reject terrorism.” It’s probable many of them have never met Muslims. If they tried, they might be surprised. In fact, the reaction to my essay—you’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept La…
Read More…tions ravenous for rights, dignity, and prosperity. In short, thank the world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, for a big order signed on the occasion of President Obama’s visit (230 planes at $21.7 billion!). And thank one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, Emirates from Dubai, for the other (50 jets at $18 billion). So here’s to cooperation of the civilizations. Here’s to throwing facts in the face of faux analysis. While Victoria Jackso…
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…houris, dark-eyed women. We all know that Mohammad Atta, who flew American Airlines flight 11 into the Twin Towers on 9/11, was inspired by this promise. But among progressives, the sex promised to the righteous in the Qur’an isn’t sex as we know it, but something mysterious and sublime for which sex is a poetic stand-in. Second, what happens to our bodies in heaven? This is my favorite part of the heaven conversation. For if you believe in heaven…
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…campaign against Perriello, a Democrat representing a swath of central and southwest Virginia who was once considered a poster child for the Democrats’ faith outreach. After helping to launch Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Faithful America, Perriello beat Republican incumbent Virgil Goode in 2008, but is now virtually tied in the polls with his Republican challenger Robert Hurt. The ad, which FRC considers “one of the most humorous”…
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…century, white Christian farmers in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Southwest Missouri mounted populist protests against the encroachment of industrial capitalism. Aligning with the Populist Party, many of these hardworking rural and small-town folks felt menaced by big East-coast banks and creeping national corporations. They weren’t opposed to money, business or success per se; rather, they wanted to ensure that some of it came their way….
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…d temescals and resemble a wet sauna or steam room; tribes in the American Southwest have dry sweats that feature heated rocks but no water, or a fire built inside the sweat with a smoke hole in the center of the lodge. The version that Ray and his followers used in Sedona is considered Plains style, where rocks are heated to glowing in a fire outside and brought into the lodge a dozen or so at a time. Water is poured on the hot rocks and the amou…
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…day at 6 p.m. and say a prayer for “Grandmother Earth.” He asked Landry, a southwest Louisiana songwriter and emerging grassroots activist, to introduce his campaign to communities in the region, including Indian Nations such as the Choctaw and the Houma. “People in southern Louisiana are people of faith,” Landry said. “Even if you don’t believe in God, it still can bring people together.” While President Obama, in his much-debated Oval Office Add…
Read More…ne who drew up the lines for the nations. If you have open borders you say, “God you goofed it all up.” Barton made no attempt to defend the legitimacy of our current national borders. There are plenty of folks who think that the whole southwest “really” belongs to Mexico. And what about Louisiana? Did God intend us to have that or the French? Native Americas? Better not go there. By Barton’s own standards he can’t tell who the “illegals” are. Loo…
Read More…nslated into a handful of European languages and Tongan. A few years ago, I spent a whole morning tuning into the various real-time translation streams on-line. As someone who has spent some time in the Navajo Southwest, I listened longest to Conference in the beautiful Dine Bizaad—Navajo language. Ya’a’teeh, brothers and sisters. Happy conference weekend. And welcome to 21st century Mormonism….
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