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In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

By Mary E. Hunt

…ore than meets the eye on religion, just as they are taught to investigate plane crashes and court cases. The difficulty, of course, is that few people want to be thought of as engaging in religion-bashing. Who will bring up the inconvenient truth that the Pope’s US visit will cost more than a million dollars a day that might better be spent on health care for uninsured people? Who will mention that women will play only the most superficial roles…

Aussie Priest is Excommunicated for Support of Women’s Ordination

By Marian Ronan

…ation. It was not lost on us that even in the much-touted interview on the plane from Brazil, Pope Francis drew the line at women’s ordination. Indeed, the clear hierarchical distinction between genders underpinned by the refusal to ordain women has been the line in the sand since not long after the Roman persecution of the church. But since John Paul II’s 1994 statement declaring women’s ordination absolutely off-limits, it’s been a twofer: somet…

Updated: Dr. Oz Thinks Anti-Muslim’s Sugar-Daddy Sheldon Adelson is “Not So Bad”

By Garibaldi

…oon you might ask? Not famed Turkish American Muslim Dr. Mehmet Oz! On the plane ride to Israel, none other than Rabbi Shmuley Boteach interviewed Dr. Oz for the Jerusalem Post. Asked why he chose to come to Israel Dr. Oz replied that it was “an effort to better understand the source of the universal Jewish values that have so positively impacted on the world and the place from which they stem.” Is it really necessary to visit Israel to better und…

So Deep a Wound: Home, and the novels of Marilynne Robinson

By Garret Keizer

…and sinners saints. Nobody deciding at the last minute not to get on that plane. Yes, Glory has something of an epiphany at the end, but it takes no epiphany on the reader’s part to see the uneasy mix of beatitude and desperation in what she feels. Only a Christian of uncommon mettle could write a novel so untainted by the bastardized tropes of Christian culture. It is as if Robinson told us the Nativity story without once evoking Christmas. In o…

Talking Religion at 30,000 Feet

By Michael J. Altman

…nd and the enthusiastic Theosophist sums up why I feel uncomfortable on airplanes. I don’t want to run into true believers. I don’t mind telling someone I study religion. But it’s very different then to tell someone I study their religion. It just seems impolite. Like saying I study their grandmother’s recipes. As I learned in college, religious studies is predicated on a notion of bracketing. “When we study religion academically,” professors tell…

The Myth of the Maya Apocalypse

By Evan Pondel

…while others believe that our world will simply be lifted up into a higher plane of consciousness. There are still others who believe that the poles will shift. Or, that there will be a solar storm of destruction. And then there is this notion that the planets are going to align; though December 21, 2012 is winter solstice and there is nothing apocalyptically significant about that phenomenon. There are also people who believe that spacemen helped…

Ugandan Anti-Gay Fallout: New Laws, New Violence, New Underground Railroad

By Peter Montgomery

…would not support her, and instead tried to remove from the UK, forcing a plane ticket on her. The Out and Proud Diamond Group African LGBTI is mobilizing a petition campaign to stop her deportation to Uganda, which is reportedly scheduled for this Friday. UK: Bishop Opposes Church’s Marriage Ban; Debate Over ‘Conscience’ Exemption for Registrars Last week the Right Reverend Dr Alan Wilson, a Church of English bishop, spoke on behalf of same-sex…

From Confusion to Kardashian: Misreading the Middle East

By Haroon Moghul

…untry in Europe plus the U.S., Canada, and Israel, against the rest of the planet (a world map only underlines this). Even Germany, a historically strong supporter of Israel, chose to abstain instead of voting no, as it was expected to. Hence an undisputed Israeli military victory was also a diplomatic defeat. Writing for the London Review of Books, Adam Shatz explained Israel didn’t win the short war. (How Gazans saw it deserves consideration.)…

Citizens United’s Bad Religion

By Sarah Posner

…bama is depicted as a crafty beguiler of mass audiences; he emerges from a plane out of the heavens as thousands swoon, cry, and cheer. He’s smug and self-congratulatory as he misleads his admirers with lofty promises. He was “charismatic,” a “knight in shining armor,” he “really did seem to have a glow about him,” and to be “the one,” former Obama supporters tell us. The followers are giddy from the cult-like deception. A still from the opening…

Can Twitter Be Used to Fight Islamophobia?

By Sarah Posner

…id Jihad at the airport. Can’t yell for him. #MuslimRage —Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) September 18, 2012 Gawker shares chilling images of #muslimrage from AP.gaw.kr/OxBFcu —benwedeman (@bencnn) September 18, 2012 On a plane and people mishearing me when I say I am a *tourist*. #muslimrage —Welshy(@WelshInGaza) September 17, 2012 And don’t miss Paul Waldman and Gabe Arana’s terrific parody of Newsweek’s journalistic decline….