Religion Dispatches
…her than try to change God’s standards” (1-14-08). 6.) TOP TEN COMPARISONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DENTISTRY: Between Google ads for “oral sedation” and “dental fear,” blogger Mark Wright writes thoughtfully about many things. On this list he points out, helpfully, that “Both Dentistry and Religion benefit financially from your sins” and reminds us that “In Religion there is the promise of Heaven. In Dentistry there is only Hell.” 7.) BOOKLIST’S TOP…
Read More
…she has in her forty books and one hundred articles, for a rejection of sexism and sexual pathology, an embrace of other cultures and religions, an option for the poor and a focus on the environment. Facing entrenched Vatican power, can one conclude that she is deluded, masochistic? Are millions of progressive Catholics who share her views deluded, engaged in a futile exercise? That is always a possibility. The direction of the Roman administrati…
Read More…ys to sow affection and dispel the discord we inevitably create with our textual wars over sexual orientation and gender identity. If either liberal or conservative interpretations continue to widen the rift between us, then neither side has gone deep enough in its understanding of scripture. Many on the religious right are quick to discard the “Judeo” part of their Judeo-Christian roots when it becomes inconvenient, but Armstrong says they aren’t…
Read More
…l world with adolescence hints at this as a kind of rite of passage—a time betwixt and between childhood and full adult responsibilities. Much like game worlds, it occurs within a space where actions have been stripped of real-world consequences, though from the first, we discover that Zoe has discovered ways to make what happens in this space count: she’s turned to it as a space of religious conversion and political activism. One of the recurring…
Read More
…t we may not have done so quickly. Kaitlin Foley: If and when there is a next step, it might be to connect the dots between the fictional and virtual origins of Taqwacore. I can’t say Mike Knight’s The Taqwacores was a genesis for me about Islam but it was an affirmation that self-publishing was a chance to throw out the rule book and create my own. I could play around with social media to find people and ask why a fictional punk scene fascinates…
Read More
…religious complex will get more interesting .It is not the religious complex that is complex, rather, the existence of Zoe and Tamara offer more interesting questions about what composes one’s personal “essence” In other words, what is it that makes you, you? And if a dog, in this case, Zoe’s dog, can recognize Zoe, what is it then that makes her dog be able to see her, even through all of the metal her essence is encased in? I know Dog is GOD spe…
Read More…song. Two of these got plenty of play on major cable networks like MTV and BET; but very few people have seen the third video. In the song, Kanye seems to embrace personal spirituality (i.e., “the way I need Jesus”) over against an explicitly racial theology (i.e. “I ain’t here to argue about his facial features”), while insisting that Jesus walks with “the least of these”—namely, “strippers, murderers, drug dealers.” We might consider the song a…
Read More
…ted workers. Both in word and in deed the candidates stoked the flames of extreme xenophobia and racism, denouncing Mexicans as criminally prone, culturally inferior, and downright un-American. As a result, Angle was narrowly defeated by the more moderate Harry Reid, whilst Brewer went on to beat her opponent handily. The basis of Brewer’s popularity is her signature, SB 1070, the most severe anti-immigrant law in the nation. But rather than an ab…
Read More…ns to put me on the list of speakers. I bought tickets… then there was a mix up… and I was cut from the list, if I had indeed been on a list… but I had some Christians who expressed concern…. and then I read your article and I… decided it would be best for me to wait and see how things play themselves out. Howse asked if Beck’s apparent view that “we all pray to the same God” isn’t by definition false teaching. Cameron demurred a bit and reflected…
Read More
…ociation with black nationalism, and their embodiment of that modern paradox—standing as images of black dignity and pride as well as an index of the “social and economic marginalization” of the community from which they emerged. The origin of this project, we’re told, was with a 2007 episode of BET’s American Gangster devoted to the infamous career of Jeff Fort. Natalie Moore, a journalist and author of a book about masculinity in hip-hop, watc…
Read More