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AIG: On Charisma and Routinization of Greed

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…p the movement alive in any significant way, they ironically must create a new machine, and a new office, to maintain that charismatic memory. Weber refers to this as the routinization of charisma. The charisma moves, from the person to the office. The prophet thus tragically gives birth to a new priesthood, requiring his or her followers to look elsewhere for the white-hot epiphany only the charisma of personhood can provide. It seems to me that…

The Nation of Islam at the End of the Apocalyptic Age?

By Anna Clark

…fore,” Farrakhan is quoted as saying. “But we must not allow our people to live in a false world of euphoria. We must accept our responsibility to build our communities.” Particularly since the public announcement of Farrakhan’s illness, there have been questions about who will succeed him as the Nation of Islam’s leader. With the Obama family in the White House, and with Farrakhan’s efforts in the last decade to move the Nation’s theology closer…

God and Prop. 8: New Poll Holds Surprises on Gay Marriage

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ces of information. However, only 25 percent of Latino Catholics say they trust their own clergy leaders a lot on this issue, preferring instead to trust parents of gay or lesbian children, and gay or lesbian couples. Black and Latino Protestants, however, put a lot of stock in what their pastors have to say (39 percent and 42 percent respectively). Not surprisingly, white evangelical Protestants trust their pastors’ views on homosexuality overwhe…

UNESCO on Religion, Culture and SOGI in Asia; Orthodox Family Sues to Stop Cremation of Israeli Trans Woman; Struggles of Iraqi Queer Activists; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…lt cremation of transgender woman May Peleg, a transgender activist from Jerusalem, committed suicide this month; she expressed a desire in her will to be cremated. But, as she had feared, her ultra-Orthodox family asked a court to stop the cremation so that they could bury Peleg as a man. From Ilan Lior in Haaretz: Attorney Yitzhak Dahan, representing the mother, said the will has no validity. “The moral obligation to honor the will is the family…

Trick or….Bible: Christians Coping with Halloween

By Maxwell Grant

…he Feast of All Saints, and then the Feast of All Souls. So it’s neither a new anxiety, nor a new response, for Christian communities to eye the season warily and to try to shoo everyone back into their seats. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, “lightening up” has really never been the Church’s thing. Not for nothing, many would say that it’s a perennial challenge for Christians to reconcile the claims (and cultural narratives) of fa…

Ihram: Dressing for the King

By Amina Wadud

…. Nice. But I hope you noticed I said man to men, and I don’t ever use the word unless explicitly male. I never use that word for human being, person, or humanity as whole. That gives people too much license whether to include women as persons or human beings, so I just don’t do it. But here it is intentional. Well, I think about the idea of hajj as a visit before the king. Men, who are basically used to certain predominance in society, if only in…

“Progressive” Religion or Just Religion?

By Brie Loskota

…ent onto broader political trends in a way that distorts both religion and politics. “Progressive” is usually shorthand for the blue side of our nuance-flattening red/blue political division. When the term “moderate Muslim” is used, the person speaking or writing is usually a non-Muslim who is trying to gauge where Muslims fall in a stark “us vs. them” perspective on the world. This conceptual polarization presents a number of problems for religio…

LDS Church Response to Prop. 8 Begs Question of Polygamy

By Joanna Brooks

….S. Supreme Court hearing, progressive Mormons voiced appreciation for the ruling. Laura Compton, founder of Mormons for Marriage, a pro-marriage equality group, said: It’s great that we live in a country where people take seriously the rights of minorities and where courts try to balance the will of the many with protecting the needs of the few. By affirming the right of Prop. 8 sponsors to bring an appeal, the courts recognized that California v…

ISIS is the Islamic “Reformation”

By Ed Simon

…y Years’ War, to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands, to Cromwell’s brutal invasion of Ireland, it becomes hard to see the word “reformation” as a simple and positive force. If Lilla’s thesis is correct, then the reformation led to political liberalism and the Enlightenment only because the ground was so bloody and the populace so exhausted they had expended their lust for war – a peace built on a pile of bones. So, when wishing for a reform…

What is Community?

By Amina Wadud

…, it is not a single geographical or political empire. There is no single “new world order.” There are only collectives. Some collectives are national, some are regional, some are spiritual. My shaykh likes to talk about this community that has been a working cooperative for almost 4 decades. What I love is that the boundaries are fluid enough to accommodate all of us visiting this week and still keep to its core, its center: the path of devotion…