Religion Dispatches
What inspired you to write Ecce Homo? As part of a completely separate research project, I stumbled across Wilson Yates’ article on the religious significance of Francis Bacon’s paintings which led me to a reproduction of Bacon’s Painting (1946), which led me to catalogues of Bacon’s work. I was absolutely enraptured by their difficult beauty. I was curious about my reaction to them, about why I was so taken by these paintings when many friends h…
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…iage Tour 2010 has drawn tens of people at each stop, including one in Indianapolis today. Courage Campaign staffers who attended today’s rally reported: “I have hand-counted 29 non-NOM staffers attending the rally—about the same number that have attended every other event on this tour.” They were outnumbered by those who came in support of marriage equality. … about 95 marriage equality supporters marched in to the event to counter-protest NOM on…
Read More…in our Mina tent she had come to tell me how much she liked that salah jamaat. NO transportation was provided by our tour group for these possible trips to Mina Makkah for people to perform the tawaf ifadah. That is tawaf plus sa’iy after Arafat. I was happy they had found a rickety old bus for 50 riyal. Normally, even a taxi costs no more than 10 riyal. But this is a moneymaking time for many working-class people in Makkah and Madinah, most of w…
Read More…to plot what Kaylor describes as a “behind-the-scenes strategy” to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. In the second part of his two-part article, Kaylor reported: A group of pastors and other conservative Christian leaders from across the country continue to plan their behind-the-scenes strategy to defeat President Obama in 2012. However, the group does not seem likely to support a Republican during the primary race or even reach a consensus as to which…
Read More…apocalyptic tradition. Children of Men and V for Vendetta were cryptically anarchistic depictions of Babylon’s destruction. By comparison, this year’s I Am Legend was an oddly patriotic tale of end-times survivalism, while Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem took a cynical glee in the symbolic destruction of middle America. All of these stories fit into previously established subgenres well-suited to apocalyptic themes, but Cloverfield is the first to ve…
Read More…ed embryos as legal, rights-bearing persons. (Disclosure: I live in Oklahoma and have been involved, in a volunteer capacity, in some of the efforts to defeat this legislation.) Personhood USA appears to have learned one lesson from its recent loss in Mississippi: ballot initiatives carry risks, and payoffs, that bills in the legislature don’t. In Oklahoma, therefore, they’re trying for both a bill and, later, a ballot initiative. (Surprisingly, t…
Read More…ding active and observant Mormons—will march in at least seven LGBT Pride parades across the country. From Seattle, Washington, to Washington D.C., New York, Portland, Boise, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City, members of three different Mormon contingents—Mormons Building Bridges, Mormons for Marriage Equality, and Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons—will walk during the month of June. (Find complete details on LDS pride parade contingents here.)…
Read More…an’s face—a nod towards her Sikh beliefs of not altering her body image. Unaware that others around him might practice faiths besides his own, “european_douchebag” posted the picture under the Reddit tab “Funny,” hoping to get an elbow-in-the-side snickering reaction from the online community. But what happened next speaks volumes of Reddit contributors. Although many of the mostly white, liberal, and somewhat-educated young male audience showed t…
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…opoly, Who Wants to Be a Celestial Heir?, Race to the Kaba, Settlers of Canaan, Krishnaland, Kosherland, and even Missionary Conquest (“One giant game of laughter and strategy,” boasts the box)—weren’t designed as jokes. Bad puns notwithstanding most are earnest, creative efforts to impart religious truth and wholesome fun to youngsters and, occasionally, adults. Yet godly games are often mistaken for godless satire, admit Nikki Bado-Fralick and R…
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…independent study with a religion professor in which I read Freud, Kierkegaard, and Tillich. CONTRIBUTORS Wendi Adamek brings historical research on medieval China to bear on contemporary issues. She is the author of The Mystique of Transmission and the forthcoming Practicescape: The Buddhists of Baoshan. Nancy Ammerman has been at the forefront of the sociology of religion for nearly three decades, starting with 1987’s Bible Believers: Fundament…
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