Religion Dispatches
…invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world.” On Palin’s election as governor: This was the result of a “prophetic call” by another pastor at the church, who prayed for her to win. “[He made] a prophetic declaration and there unfolds the kingdom of God, you know.” From 2002 on: Wasilla Bible Church, Pastor Larry Kroon…
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…servative nexus in the United States best manifested itself was not in its promotion of the invasion of Iraq, but in its abuse of the role that Israel plays in American politics. Why did the figure of Israel have to play such a negative role? Though the demonization of Rashid Khalidi made anti-Palestinian agitation explicitly a part of the election, it was not hard to ascertain that by Islamizing Obama, the intent to drive Jews into the Republican…
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…in Afghanistan, the birthplace of Rumi. We’re fighting a war, of sorts, in Iraq, the birthplace of Sufism. We have been for some time now teetering on the brink of disaster with Iran, formerly known as Persia, and amid all of this, who rises to become America’s most beloved poet? Walt Whitman? Robert Frost? No, a Persian Sufi whirling dervish from Afghanistan who preached of unconditional compassion and sang of the glories of abandoning oneself en…
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…essence one seduces us into thinking that we can send 160,000 troops into Iraq without reckoning with the fundamental differences between Christianity and Islam or, for that matter, between Sunnis and Shias. It prevents us from seeing the role that religions plan in many of the world’s hotspots: from Israel and the Palestinian territories to Nigeria and Kashmir. Equally importantly, it prevents us from seeing and appreciating the unique beauty of…
Read More…since Reconstruction. (He beat out Strom Thurmond’s son in the primaries.) Iraq war veteran Allen West will be headed to Congress from Florida, despite having been fined for improperly firing his weapon to force information from a detainee while serving in Iraq, and for his connections to a criminal motorcycle club. West’s acceptance speech was peppered with Scripture, telling the crowd “You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the worl…
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…meddling of Western powers to whom a genuine commitment to Arab rights and freedoms is not a priority. I feel even less qualified to make predictions about the Arab Spring, but the fact that the push for change is coming from within rather than being imposed from without seems like grounds for cautious optimism. I hope it pans out, and I also hope that whomever we elect in November doesn’t decide to “help” in ways that do more harm than good. In t…
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…llars in aid the United States delivers to Israel every year. In 2006, the Iraq Study Group was excoriated by many on the pro-Israel right for making the linkage argument,stating in its final report (pdf): “The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict and regional instability.” The Bush administration largely ignored the ISG’s recommendations and decided instead to undertake…
Read More…is at the heart of both the arguments to allow gay marriage and those that promote the traditional definition of marriage,” he said. He also asked the Legislature to consider freedom of religion when moving forward with legislation to reflect the Supreme Court’s decision. South Africa: Call for inclusive sex education Advocates for sexuality education in South Africa are urging schools to move beyond the “when a boy loves a girl” narrative that is…
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…kind of freedom in order to have another. MHS: You mean that you trade the freedom to choose for the freedom of a world that feels unconstrained by predetermined trajectories? AL: Precisely. Which, bizarrely, means that free will is actually more constrained! MHS: Well, that’s kind of the ethic behind big data, right? That, at least in aggregate, decisions that feel like free choice actually follow very clear and pre-determined patterns, and these…
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…her successes. Faith, as that Pope never tired of repeating, can never be promoted by force; truth’s power lies its truthfulness, nothing more. Now in a great many ethical and political matters, John Paul II was as anti-modern a Pope as the Church has seen in recent memory; his successor even more so. But on the devilish topic of religion, science and free enquiry, these same Popes have elected to stand emphatically on the side of the moderns. Th…
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