Religion Dispatches
…e important research takes place in non-Christian countries like China and Japan and by their nationals working in the West, a totally theology-centric narrative seems less and less plausible. But even an anecdotal survey of what ways of thinking uphold the everyday habits of science today don’t quickly draw one’s mind to religion, nor do they necessarily stand in opposition to it. As in any profession, there are professionals competing for advanc…
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…umankind’s earliest rain-bringers and tribal healers. In the Edo period of Japan, for instance, Kikaku, a close disciple of Zen haiku master Basho, reputedly ended drought by reciting poetry. The flipside of drought is water, and the book continues elementally, in sections which I take to pertain to earth (incarnation), air (devotion), fire (death and dying), and the human (teachers along the path). To appreciate the grace with which the poet trea…
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…us Groups Ignore Him LEVI MCLAUGHLIN • Mar 17, 2011 While it appears as if Japan, like America, has its share of vocal public figures eager to equate disaster with apocalypse and to use mass human suffering as an excuse to propagandize, Japanese religious groups have joined together—largely under the media radar—to help in the relief effort. The Heresy of End Times Predictions LOUIS A. RUPRECHT • Jun 6, 2011 Apocalyptically-minded souls—nationalis…
Read More…ow, Box Turtle Bulletin’s Jim Burroway points out: the provisions barring ‘promoting homosexuality’ would potentially punish even lawyers who defend LGBT people in court. Uganda’s legal fraternity is expected to point out that the proposed law would be completely unfair. To them. With the world’s eyes turned upon Japan as it recovers from its natural disasters – and works to prevent an all-out nuclear disaster – the Ugandan Parliament may finally…
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…h an atrocity—despite Buddhism’s history of violence in places like Burma, Japan, Tibet and Sri Lanka [see: Monks With Guns: Discovering Buddhist Violence, by Michael Jerryson in RD]. However, when the perpetrator is a Muslim we assume, as a matter of course, that religion was their primary motivation—despite the verses in the Qur’an that say murdering a single innocent person is the same as murdering all of humanity. Of course, there is nothing t…
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…VI. Even Glenn Beck (remember him?) opined that the recent catastrophes in Japan constituted “a message being sent. And that is, ‘Hey, you know that stuff we’re doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.’ I’m just saying.” (Read the full quote here.) Strange, then, the eerie silence that has greeted this recent string of weather emergencies in the Bible Belt. One can understand the Christian Right keeping mum—a…
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…okuto Ide, a reporter for Christian Today—a Jang-affiliated publication in Japan not to be confused with Christianity Today—describes CT’s articles as “predatory efforts by those with commercial interests,” and suggests they’re motivated by “trying to break Olivet’s deal to purchase [the] Glorieta [Conference Center].” I asked Jonathan Park via email why he thought Christianity Today put so much time and effort—not to mention pages—into reporting…
Read More…who have waged an execution campaign against gay men in Syria. The competition’s winner says his boyfriend was beheaded by ISIS. The article is accompanied by photos by Bradley Secker. Japan: Diplomats Join Pride Celebration US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and other diplomats spoke at the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade last Sunday. …
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…of the occasion. I mean, Carli Lloyd’s third goal, the one where, breaking free from a defender near midfield, she looked up and, noticing that Japan’s goalkeeper was stationed too far forward, sent a shot over that goalkeeper’s hands and right into the goal. You never see a play like that; it indicated that, in that moment, Lloyd was so dialed-in, so far above her peers, that she could do anything. It was like when, after an easy semifinal win, F…
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…e robots look, act, and function like human beings, minus consciousness or free will. They’ve been programmed to take over sophisticated tasks, like housekeeping, manual labor, medical care and, yes, sex. Imagine the human equivalent of a Roomba. This is the world depicted in AMC’s Humans, which recently wrapped up its first season. Set in a “parallel present” where highly sophisticated androids—called “synths”—have become ubiquitous, the show exp…
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