Religion Dispatches
…urses, conferences and symposia have been organized around it, but it is almo*]}*st invisible outside the academic world because the text is nearly 800 pages of dense, jargon-filled prose.” Rest assured, we do not need to read Taylor for ourselves because David Brooks can be trusted. His ongoing effort to distill for us the density of jargon is a choice well-honed. The result: a column that we have chosen to read (again, wisely) and, moreover, a reade…
Read More…mon – they are mainly non-profit outfits, churches, schools, and colleges. Most of them require applicants for employment to agree with a specific statement of faith to work there. Take the Alliance Defense Fund for example. Before you can even see if they have any jobs available you must click a button that says “I agree” after reading their 7 point Statement of Belief that includes: 1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, authori…
Read More…death play such a prominent part in the very ceremony from which we should most wish to protect it? “Til death do us part,” we say, reminding ourselves in the very moment of joining that we are committing ourselves equally to an inevitable parting. How should we look upon the smiling faces, the desperate notes, the brief snippets of biography, the inspiring hopes, the sense of infinite possibility? Lofton invites us into an almo*]}*st terrifying hones…
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…, or what have you. Since I try to introduce an historical perspective in most of my classes, I find myself speaking of decades, and centuries, and millennia, almo*]}*st as a matter of natural course. And for some reason, I have found it very difficult to stop speaking as if we lived still in the twentieth century. Describing the passage of time in one’s own lifetime a decade at a time requires some creativity and thoughtfulness; marking the appearan…
Read More…ce in order to be arrested on his own timetable and on his own terms). The most haunting line in the article is a description of the state of this office on December 12, 2008, the day after Madoff’s arrest: “It was filled with investigators, whose first act was to cut the wires to the paper shredders.” Madoff was a man for whom appearances mattered greatly — the way you dressed, the way you talked, the way you looked. His offices reflected this. T…
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…ncluding that a woman who attacks her abuser simply hates men. Even at the most basic level, there’s a responsibility to demand evidence before allowing antisemitism to be quickly assigned as the most likely answer. This question becomes especially important in a situation where Jews are overwhelmingly the more powerful party in the equation. “By radically decontextualizing such violence, and by claiming that the motivating force for any act again…
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…orvette that the transparent doors that hang on the closets of many of our most beloved family members, celebrities, and preachers matter less than some may think. Let’s be honest! Nobody ever expected to open Ebony and read about Luther Vandross’ marriage to a woman; yet how many African-American houses did Luther’s unmistakable voice turn into a home? Luther is far from alone. Has Prince’s transgender persona hurt his standing among African Amer…
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…upport for their ideas. This is something at which Maher and cohorts would mostly succeed. But I’m also looking for my students to do a little reflection on their own assumptions about what religion is and does, to do a little research, and to think about the variety of ways religion has been described, defined, defended, and derided through the ages. Here begins the downturn of their GPA. On the first day of class I provide my students with a ten…
Read More…d and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what’s the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?” Here, certain true colors shone through the haze. Obama said what he has been saying consistently for the past two weeks: his focus is on the long-suffering American middle class, and this crisis points to the need for additional oversight and government regulation of our ailing financial sector, investm…
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…February; in other words, nearly two-thirds of us weren’t watching it. The most-viewed political spectacle of the year, the State of the Union address, draws around 10% of the population. Barack Obama won the 2012 presidential election with 62 million votes, meaning that fewer than 20% of us voted for him. The people have spoken…kind of. A viral post or article—the kind that fills your Facebook newsfeed and comes up in conversation at low-key part…
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