Religion Dispatches
…ds and advertisements that tell us our life is not enough without that new phone, that new gadget, that new dress. And yet the minute you purchase your phone or laptop, it is obsolete. Every six months, fashion editors tell us our entire closet is out—our clothing is disposable. Shopping is not only a lifestyle, it is a form of entertainment. Whether it is infomercials and shopping networks or makeover shows, we not only shop, we watch people shop…
Read More…ws, Father Bernard Lynch spoke at a street protest against the closure of one of London’s oldest LGBT venues, the Black Cap pub, paying public tribute to “the drag queens of Stonewall.” Pink News reviews the LGBT stances of Northern Ireland’s political parties on LGBT issues and so-called “conscience clause” legislation, noting that North Ireland is the only part of the UK without marriage equality. Naith Payton writes that the largest, the Democr…
Read More
…son for a remake, even though it may not be the answer you have pre-determined to be the right one, is to reach a wider audience . . . There is nothing wrong with ‘Hollywoodized’ if it means the same thing to you as it does to me. Christians deserve bigger movies too with great actors, and high production values.” This has been the debate about Left Behind. Among evangelical Christians who like the franchise —which doesn’t include all of them—ther…
Read More
…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…urt granted an exemption that “extinguishe[d] the statutorily guaranteed benefits” of someone else: Hobby Lobby’s employees. As Kagan noted, “Congress has made a judgement to provide an entitlement,” in other words, the birth control coverage, “and that entitlement is to women” who are “harmed” if they are denied it. Justice Anthony Kennedy, thought to be the swing vote, asked Clement, “how would you suggest we think about the rights of employees?…
Read More
…priety and administrative incompetence. The CMRI moved its headquarters to Omaha, Nebraska, under a new bishop. In many ways CMRI exhibits a pattern found in the more extreme traditionalist organizations: erratic leaders, improvised and dubious forms of ecclesiastical succession, an increasing isolation from the mainstream Church—and a hefty dose of conspiracy thinking to account for how post-conciliar Catholicism went so wrong. I encountered all…
Read More
…tate bribery. We would have to buy new, full-price tickets to Iran. On the phone with JetBlue’s customer service line that night, my righteous fury dissipated quickly. Could JetBlue really be to blame for bad weather, or a mechanical problem, or whatever system error had made our flight impossible? Don’t I benefit regularly from this massive travel infrastructure that, like Lady Justice, doles its punishments out blindly? I accepted $100 in travel…
Read More
…e idea of baseball as a political tool of American foreign policy is not a new one. In 1913, James Sullivan, dispatch minister for the Dominican Republic, suggested to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that baseball could exorcise political demons in that Latin American nation, while also diffusing anti-U.S. sentiment. The manifestation of resentment toward Americans, this is merely on the surface, I believe, and will disappear if the Amer…
Read More
…. when the priesthood session started, even though about twenty women remained in line. Immediately thereafter, a small garbage truck was parked in front of the door, barring women any access to it. The group then sang “I Am a Child of God,” a familiar LDS children’s song, before returning to nearby City Creek Park, where some participants watched the priesthood session as it streamed online. This was the first time the priesthood session was broa…
Read More
…me shows), even when something unintentional happens—say you know that the airline didn’t intentionally keep you from flying—the question that humans often pose is, “Was this preventable?” “Could they have done something to prevent that?” And that’s when we wonder—well, who could have done something to prevent it? The person at the counter? The pilot? The CEO? We don’t know, and so we have, in a sense, a certain disorientation and don’t know to wh…
Read More