Religion Dispatches
…We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping, whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee, we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless in…
Read More…emonized in so many places as the face of nameless cosmopolitan and anti-national forces. I also think that there are certain similarities between older European fears of Judeo-Bolshevism and recent European fears of Muslim migrants….
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…point out that any such division that Douthat pretends to is fantastical. Europe did not need large numbers of Muslim migrants to suffer catastrophic sexual crime, because sexual violence crosses all boundaries. Harassment, molestation, rape and other violence and abuse of women is tragically far more common than we care to admit, and not the province of any one country, culture, class or community. This is, of course, not to excuse the misogynis…
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…e success either. The opening weekend saw sales of more than $6 million in tickets. That’s the kind of number that will inspire others to try and figure out the formula for the faith-and-family blockbuster. Yet, with the cost of the film reportedly exceeding $30 million, it’s an open question whether or not the Left Behind reboot will get a second installment. The marketing problem of evangelical movies is still, stubbornly, a problem. The general…
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…clusions. What and where is this new ray of hope for a Muslim minoritarian Europe of the 21st century? It comes from European governments. They, in cooperation with their Muslim citizens, have begun the task of educating a new, more diverse and non-traditional citizenry. Among the patient observers trying to assess that effort is Jonathan Laurence, not just a professor but also a policy analyst with Brookings Institution. Like Leiken he too has sp…
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…Where creationism is most popular and most influential is more in Eastern Europe. I wouldn’t say that [creationism] is dramatic in Europe, of course. When you compare it to the United States, it’s very small and marginal. But you don’t have to have a lot of people. In Germany, there are not so many creationists, but they’re widely influential, they’re quite active. They are quite capable of making themselves heard. In the book, one contributor ta…
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…ou’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 Lakers tickets in lieu of apologies, but I think that particular era is done.) This whole book is a result of a profound evolution, and needs to be seen as such. American Muslims have gone through a lot over the last few decades. We were never the caricature Islamophobes made us ou…
Read MoreAt oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. v. Sebelius this morning, the Supreme Court justices spent a great deal of time questioning the lawyers in the case about whether corporations have a religious conscience, and whether Congress intended to protect it when enacting the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What was most striking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia So…
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…te segregation and economic favoritism. When I spoke with Rothstein on the phone, he underscored the long-term effects of this last policy. During the 1940s and 1950s, suburban subdivisions were built in St. Louis, and throughout the country, using federal loans stipulating that no homes be sold to African Americans. Priced at about $125,000 in today’s dollars, these were affordable—with a mortgage—to working class families, black or white. Yet bl…
Read More…City tag.” He notes that anti-gay religious activists, while not large in number, are relatively vocal: Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of the conservative Christian group, the Society For Truth And Light, for example, has been given an increasingly prominent stage to present his views following Taiwan’s legislative change. His opinions on same-sex marriage, sexual minority anti-discrimination laws, and even the recent “controversy” over a homose…
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