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Na’vi and Goliath: Palestinian Protesters Dress as Avatar Underdogs

By Shalom Goldman

…aps, the highest-grossing film of all time) were undercut by events on the West Bank early last month. On February 12, at the now regular demonstrations and clashes in the town of Bilin, pro-Palestinian demonstrators appeared in blue body paint as the Na’vi—the film’s indigenous people who are threatened by the human corporate mining of “unobtainium.” Among those reenacting the parts of “Na’vi” were Palestinians, Israeli activists, and Europeans. …

What Good Is It for Union to Gain the World, But Forfeit Its Soul?

By Yazmine Nichols

…itiful, poor, blind and naked. A similar lesson can be gleaned from Matthew 19:16-22, where Jesus sends a young man away because the man is unwilling to sell his possessions and give to the poor. Both passages are damning for those who think themselves either spiritually or materially rich, but fail to recognize their theological poverty. They implore readers to rethink what it means to be rich and suggest true wealth can only be obtained through…

Can Atheists Simply Ignore Theology?

By Eric Reitan

…is, rather, a certain holistic interpretation of our experience, one that offers an account of the meaning and significance of the empirical world and the lives we lead within it. To believe in God is to understand the world of ordinary experience in terms of an interpretive worldview that posits the existence of “something more.” In this respect, belief in God is more like belief in metaphysical naturalism—by which I mean the doctrine that the e…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…xamines in-depth the connections between the Russian Orthodox Church, right-wing American evangelicals and funders, and Russia’s anti-gay (and anti-abortion) crackdown. Noting that anti-gay forces denounce pro-LGBT pressure from abroad, he notes, “The irony is that it is the new conservative vanguard—anti-gay, anti-abortion and pro–“traditional family”—that has most successfully cultivated the West’s financial and institutional support.” The churc…

Heaven On Earth: A Non-Hysterical History of Shari’ah

By Haroon Moghul

…in 632 C.E., Islamic law continued to evolve for centuries. It was one-and-a-half centuries before Muslim jurists began systematically to address the two interlinked questions that are central to any legal system: how to decide between two different arguments concerning a rule; and how to resolve cases that are not explicitly covered by clear rules in the first place. In the years since then, countless thousands of scholars have spent their liv…

Zen and the Art of the Sex Scandal

By Gary Gach

…pped over. Practicing with and as a group, alone with others, atonement (at-one-ment) implies interaction between the individual and the collective. There are also processes for reconciliation in Buddhism where all parties agree to be present together to enact a peace treaty. Deep wounds can take many years to heal, but just one ray of light in a room that’s been dark for a many years can dispel many years of darkness. The Zen Studies Society’s tr…

American Sin: Why Pope Francis’ Mercy is Not Our Mercy

By Kaya Oakes

…er of languages, economic classes, ethnicities and cultures represented in American Catholic churches, American Catholics resist singularity. And it follows that they are going to be inconsistent in how they define mercy, as the hierarchy of the American church is often wont to demonstrate. Even the variety of American “Mercy Doors” found online defies comparison to the huge, ornately carved bass doors Francis pushed open at St. Peter’s when he de…

State of the Union Stuck in that Olde-Time Semi-Niebuhrianism

By Ira Chernus

…as the only other huge applause line of the entire address. If the applause-o-meter in the House chamber were any judge, the heart of the matter is that, in the best Niebuhrian “realist” fashion, a “contentious and frustrating and messy democracy” is proving its superiority to every other nation with its domestic “civility,” while at the same time sending its military forces to fend off a shadowy and (let’s be honest now) apparently rather ineffec…

Unmasking the “Veiled Prophet” Behind a 135-Year-Old St. Louis Tradition

By Spencer Dew

…through the streets of downtown St. Louis and across television sets coast-to-coast. This civic celebration served the cause of St. Louis boosterism (“Great Things Are Happening!” in the Gateway to the West, the parade’s logo declared) as well as offering an expression for patriotic pride (veterans were honored, and our national colors were much used). In many ways a throwback to an earlier time in American entertainment, complete with majorettes…

Playing Hooky: Will Boycott of Catholic Church Spur Reform?

By Nathan Schneider

…, however, is what some people’s leaving means for those of us who stay. Ex- or lapsed Catholics are everywhere, often well-meaning and progressive. But where does their absence leave those of us who remain in church, and who want to be a force for change? It’s clear that Jennifer Sleeman isn’t proposing to abandon the Church altogether. But a protest should always be in the image of its goal, the means in keeping with the ends. When I heard of he…