Religion Dispatches
…customers. Like SoulCycle, it does so in an openly commercial context with high cost barriers. And, as Yale religion scholar Kathryn Lofton has argued, Oprah has built a (privately owned) empire, in part, by developing a powerful hybrid of spirituality and consumerism. So who cares? If the market can deliver spiritual or ethical goods, then shouldn’t it do so? And aren’t most people at SoulCycle just trying to get some exercise? Those caveats matt…
Read More…r Boehner appears ready to go to great lengths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples.” I suppose Boehner can pander to the religious right and continue to defend “traditional” marriage, but I think it’s fair to ask why—when jobless rates continue to hover near 10 percent—which issue may be most important to God: how people arrange their intimate relationships,…
Read More…t begins. Here you are supposed to face the Ka’abah and hold both hands as high as your ears, with palms toward the black stone, and recite “bismi-Lah, Allahu Akbar laa ilaha illa-Allah.” Then raise your right hand as if in greeting and bring it back to kiss. If you are close enough to the stone, you’re supposed to kiss it. If you cannot kiss it, you should touch it with the right hand; if not, then just wave and kiss the hand. People also will to…
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…merican who are evangelicals, and journalists ran with that. It was a much higher number than had been assumed before, [which were based on counting members of those denominations within] the National Association of Evangelicals. In addition to changing the numbers, polling also changed political perception, [by implying] that evangelicals were a voting bloc. That made sense to journalists because Catholics were a voting bloc for John F. Kennedy i…
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…pages I’ll confine myself to Religulous.) This is the kind of thing a fair number of my students, raised in the Protestant-dominated United States (even Catholics and Jews have assimilated this definition), come to university thinking about religion; the two key components of which are “belief” and “God.” Religion is some cryptic interior, individual thing that exists in one’s own head, and is only understood in relation to a God. I don’t blame my…
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…School. And both she and her son have now found themselves caught up in a high-stakes struggle that involves local churches, an LGBTQ youth support group, the Roseville Joint Union High School District (RJUHSD), far-right street gang the Proud Boys, and notorious disinformation group Project Veritas. Located just northeast of Sacramento in Placer County, Roseville is a city of about 150,000 people. Sara Bocciardi, who went to college in San Franc…
Read More…d students’ right to free speech. Both organizations argued that since the high school permits students to put signs up on their lockers, such as “Happy Birthday, Susie” and “Go Team,” the Ten Commandments are protected as well. In my original post, I mistakenly wrote that the high school was in Giles County, Virginia, which is actually two counties away, but where students are also involved in a different fight over the Ten Commandments. However,…
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…high-profile arrests, the Ugandan police have openly said they have other, higher priorities. Nevertheless, anti-gay public sentiments run high, and religious leaders routinely condemn homosexuality in a country where over 90% of the population describes itself as religious. Responding to criticism that Sunday’s The Call Uganda would push the bill and incite further violence and hatred against homosexuals in Uganda, Engle issued a press statement…
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…ges. Muslims, like members of other faiths, express their displeasure in a number of ways over those who belittle their prophet. In 2008, for example, a petition was circulated online to remove a 17th-century Ottoman manuscript image of Muhammad from the Wikipedia article on the prophet. Despite accumulating over 455,000 signatures and the Wikipedia community’s refusal to remove the illustration, still no violent acts have resulted. Lost in the de…
Read More…r cent claiming they did not believe in a deity. Other polls have put that number far higher, with as much as 80 per cent stating that they do not have any particular religious affiliation. It seems that the powers that be in Hong Kong will, therefore, face increasing pressure on this issue. Russia: Dozens cross border to attend pride in Norwegian town; plight of lesbians in Chechnya The Independent Barents Observer reports that about 50 people fr…
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