Religion Dispatches
…half. There were still probably 80 empty seats, and it was clear that some number of attendees had free tickets. The largest financial supporter of the event was a local news/talk radio station and its representatives were the only media allowed in. As I arrived with my Religion Dispatches press badge they stopped me before I even got to the door. I chatted with an AP reporter and he said AP had been trying for weeks to gain media access—but that…
Read More…of protest is to wear the niqab and nothing else. Then, the women will get tickets, not for being nude, but for being clothed. In my opinion, that would show the absolute absurdity of the state trying to control women’s dress. I have written elsewhere that this sort of action, of controlling a woman’s body, is simply male penis worship run amok. These ladies, who call themselves Niqabitches, have done a great service in showing the inherent contra…
Read More…sired ratings. Which makes, at least momentarily, the boroughs of New York City a Glenn Beck radio free zone. (Word has it syndicators are looking for a new outlet.) Perhaps Beck’s self-styled turn to the prophetic last summer and fall—which included forays into the world of Black theology and the mysteries of the Bat Creek Stone, as well as his lachrymose and prayer-scented DC Rally in August —didn’t go over so well with hardboiled conservatives…
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…st stories are, of Rudy Giuliani coming in to see his daughter playing Sim City, starting to give her advice, and she snarls at him, “Dad, you run your city and let me run mine.” The story is usually told to talk about how complex and accurate Sim City is but it may also tell us something about how certain skills and interests run through family lines. I was especially interested in Zoe’s discussion of why her avatar lacks the ability to instantly…
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…hat flashpoint of what was internally dubbed the “Baltimore Uprising,” the city saw an appreciable uptick in social and political engagement. Many leaders in the city’s churches were faced with the challenge of providing members of their communities with physical as well as spiritual food. There has been a feeling that the church needs to be a genuine driver of change—not another server of empty rhetoric, and definitely not another actor complicit…
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…d sleep over at each other’s house. Neither of them wants to live in a big city, not even a city with solar power and recycled water. If cities have to be built for the people who want them they will leave that to older sister. Where would their settlements be built? Obviously, in the Sinai. Lots of land, no people, people looking for a land. They have been told that Masdar City, with its narrow streets and shaded walks, is the pet project of an A…
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…azine article and our statement. Some of those folks are now a part of The City Church. Many of them moved because they assumed The City Church was more aligned with their views on inclusion/exclusion and how relevant policies would be enforced. Likewise, I’ve come to know people who left The City Church for reasons of exclusion and are now a part of EastLake. Pastor Judah, you are a gifted communicator. I harbor no negative feelings for you. You…
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…priests and nuns carried out most of Church ministry. Since then, as their numbers declined, lay men and women in great numbers have committed themselves to work alongside priests and nuns. This partnership is essential for the Church’s mission to thrive. The Jesuit School of Theology is preparing ministerial leaders—Jesuit, religious, and lay—to work together as partners for tomorrow’s Church.” No Hierarchy of Abuse There’s a critical disconnect…
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…nine long, sweltering days in June, the captured Supreme Court delivered a number of rulings attacking the very foundation of egalitarian democracy, effectively announcing their intention to roll back whatever progress has been made since the establishment of the civil rights order in the 1960s. But no case rattled and enraged the nation as much as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the Court overruled the historic precedents o…
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…dline, “The Stealth Persuader.” The secret to his stealth is simple: In a city where everybody wants to be in the news, Coe isn’t seeking publicity. Way back in 1966, when he first began assuming leadership of the organization he’d come to re-brand as the Family, he sent out a memo declaring that the time had come to “submerge” the group’s public profile. In a rare interview, he admits that the National Prayer Breakfast—owned and organized by the…
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