Religion Dispatches
…l Jewish life. As for the exotic or controversial elements of our religion highlighted by The Book of Mormon musical, some Mormons prefer to set them aside or “put them on a shelf.” Some of us shy away from interaction with non-LDS people for fear of having to explain them. Others recoil from Mormonism entirely and feel or are made to feel they must leave the community when they discover controversial or contested elements of Mormon history and te…
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…t the same company: Disney. Also on The Cubit: TED evangelism, secular sermons, the new lyceum Follow The Cubit, RD‘s religion-and-science portal, @TheCubit…
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…butor to Salon. In December, Aziz published a scathing review of Harris’ latest book, Islam and the Future of Tolerance (co-written with Maajid Nawaz). Harris then invited Aziz onto his podcast, but only on the condition that Aziz follow a bizarre and rigid set of rules. Aziz accepted, and they spoke for four hours, but then Harris refused to air the resulting conversation. Harris claimed that the conversation was boring. Aziz accused Harris of “p…
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…being anti-contraception zealots. Inevitably, though, the developing inside-the-beltway non-wisdom is that Obama demonstrated, once again, that he is insensitive to religion and is clueless about handling issues involving the intersection of faith and politics. (For examples, see these pieces in The Hill and Politico.) While Marcotte is right that the whole episode exposed the Republicans’ dark-ages zealotry, the Democratic pundits and strategists…
Read More…s quite critical of Christians who lapse back into Judaism, and the entire New Testament is fraught with a sometimes bitter rivalry with mainstream Judaism as Christians are slowly moved out of it. Likewise, major theologians like Augustine and Luther said on the one hand that Christians should treat Jews with respect, and on the other assured their followers that Jews would burn in Hell with other non-believers. (Luther in particular was given to…
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…in St. Louis to rekindle old relationships, compare progress notes, and re-up for a new era. “History belongs to those who preserve their records” was a conference mantra as historians hastened to do oral histories and memorabilia were collected. Moving liturgies grounded the gathering. A poignant time of remembrance and a queer All Saints service gave expression to the grief, loss, and deep appreciation that are all part of struggle. Spirited si…
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…rotestants have left behind the iconography that depicted Jesus as a medium-to-small-framed white guy with either blond of brown hair wearing a robe. But, as contemporary churches designed new sanctuary spaces, with massive stages replacing traditional pulpits, the actors on the stage replaced the icons. Effectively, then, “Jesus” was still a medium-to-small-framed white guy with either blond or brown hair. When the representation of holiness—in p…
Read More…The whole video is here. Notably, it also includes West’s views on the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict: “we cannot create another state, a quote, unquote Palestinian state, that would be nothing but another terrorist state.” West, who went on to extol American exceptionalism in the interview, was fined by the U.S. military in 2003 for his involvement in the use of “improper methods” to get information from an Iraqi detainee th…
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…her, a rabbi, two Muslim imams, and an immigrant single father and his born-in-the-U.S. daughter. Butler began with a recitation of the issues on which Sessions’ record is morally unacceptable, including voting rights, immigration, fair wages for women, hate crimes, and anti-Muslim bigotry. Barber declared that the Sessions nomination represented a “moral crisis” for the nation. Racism, Barber said, is not about whether someone uses the n-word or…
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…y nestled within a vision of theological respectability. Good, upstanding, community-minded people believe! Within the context of thirty minutes, questioning the existence of God, or denying it altogether, is presented as a problem to solve – one that points to a loss of “true” black identity, a departure from the safety of the African American community and its cosmic protector. Nonbelievers and doubters are presented as the foreign element, not…
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