Religion Dispatches
…Muslim, before everything and after everything. My brain bought into this priority and everywhere reproduced it, till I’d spawned a deranged monster running wild in my head, condemning everything I came across as insufficiently Islamic. And not just other people; I was the harshest judge of my disappointingly un-Muslim self. In that kitchen, that life of forced and faux piety reached its theological dénouement. It popped up as I pivoted from the s…
Read More…n’t over, though, without a kosher butcher analogy. This one was raised by Justice Samuel Alito, who pointed to a Danish effort that would close kosher and halal slaugherhouses through a law that would ban killing an animal without stunning it first. Verrilli described that law as “targeted” at religion in a way the ACA is not. But, Verrilli noted, the contraception benefit is different, as is the companies’ objection. In this case, Verrilli argue…
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…logized: they couldn’t facilitate 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 blind…
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…aith comes in.” Nevertheless, Graham simultaneously combines biblical authority, the sovereignty and providence of God, and a statement of human sinfulness to legitimate Trump’s candidacy. Graham solidifies this claim by going on to consider the matter in more personal terms. Like others before him, Trump may very well be imperfect—but so are we all. Graham goes on: We’re all guilty of sin. Franklin Graham stands here in front of you today as a si…
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…about Obama’s visit, and especially about the president exchanging pleasantries during a baseball game with representatives of a regime he charges with so much of his family’s sorrow. The embargo didn’t work. I get it. America does a lot of business with dictators. I get it. My parents aren’t close-minded, heartless or blinded by unreasonable rage. They’d be all for normalized relations with Cuba if it meant helping, you know, the citizens of Cuba…
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…so complete that special arrangements must be made to enforce it. In the April 2007 priesthood session, a musical number was provided by a men’s chorus. The chorus was selected and trained by Brigham Young University professor Rosalind Hall, who also chose the music for the choir—but Hall was not allowed to attend the performance; instead, she was replaced by a male colleague, Ronald Staheli, for that one event. In fact, Hall was not even allowed…
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…it’s the customer service agent or the person at the desk, who sat there, right when the doors were closed and the flight took off, just as you arrived. It doesn’t really matter who exactly provides some justice. The institution probably just prefers to funnel it through one channel, namely customer service, because then they can have stricter rules, what is given, how much is given, under what circumstances, and so on. There are larger social pr…
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…n-hunting couple whose case files are the basis of the billion-dollar Conjuring series of films. Put on by Tony Spera, the son-in-law of Ed and Lorraine and current head of NESPR, the Paracon boasts the chance to see real haunted artifacts straight from the Warren’s now-closed Occult Museum. Joe and I jumped at the opportunity. We enter the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, and follow the staggeringly long line as it snakes out the do…
Read More…Kazakhstan’s LGBT community and allies is part and parcel of a broad human rights crisis that includes the torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners, the jailing and fining of peaceful protestors, the detention of those practicing religions outside of state control, and the closing and blocking of independent print and social media. As in Russia, Kazakhstan has mandated that NGOs register with the government, and authorities enjoy wide discreti…
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…opined that American seekers were likely reincarnated Indians, helpfully bridging spiritual chasms between the two countries. How convenient, I thought. But that was my general outlook on anything resembling spiritual commitment. For most of my life, I wanted to be a Catholic priest. I’d studied Catholic theology in college, and upon graduating, I lived in community with the Society of Jesus. I’d come out as gay during college and dated men, but…
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