Religion Dispatches
…re provider’s principles.) With all due respect, putting the onus on the patient, as if patients enjoy such a range of choice in their healthcare providers, seems at least as unrealistic a prospect as convincing nearly all sexually-active adults in the U.S. that they shouldn’t use contraception. No, this problem will be something for Catholic institutions themselves to sort out. Catholic hospitals may have to negotiate a new compromise between…
Read More
…he Nile, the green the land, the red the blood of Christ. Under a headless palm tree on the parched land of the kibbutz courtyard, William told me how he used to hide in the mango trees near Abyei, their leaves so thick you couldn’t see the sun. Now, the borderland is barren, apart from the few trees that don’t need water and, of course, the oil underground. A Film and a Smoothie Sudanese who arrived as refugees will have to leave Israel as a resu…
Read More…can’t forgive, we remain victims) who might become able to forgive if they participated in a program at a community center, got to know someone, had a swim or listened to a lecture. Forgiveness needs signs and symbols. Religious institutions need signs and symbols. Forgiveness doesn’t happen all at once. But it could begin with a building permit at Ground Zero. Finally, that word love, which so many wrongly imagine as a soft verb. There is nothing…
Read More…g a refund of the $363,000 in estate taxes that I should never have had to pay in the first place.” The Human Rights Campaign agreed: “Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they’ve brought in a high priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Speaker Boehner appears ready to go to great lengths, and the great expense of a high-power law fi…
Read More
…ter for Immigration Studies (CIS), which bills itself as an independent nonpartisan think tank on the impact of immigration on the United States. The announcement of this panel caught my attention because none of the panelists seemed to represent the views of the nationwide Interfaith Immigration Coalition, the major collection of religious organizations dealing with immigration today, or of any of the many religious denominations that have spoken…
Read More
…oversy has raised the profile of Karmapa, albeit to an unwelcome level. It has also formally instantiated him into the politics of India, China and Tibet, something, which the Karmapas in the past have avoided. His predecessor the 16th Karmapa, who passed away in 1981, preferred to remain that way. However, given the prospective role—which actually now looks more and more like an obligation—that this Karmapa could play going forward, this latest i…
Read More…erhood started out as a social movement, they overcame their reluctance to participate in formal opposition politics in 2005. They joined the street demonstrations of the Kifaya movement, engaged in debate on political reform and successful contested parliamentary elections, winning 88 out of 444 seats (having only contested 150 constituencies). As one commentator noted, the Brotherhood took “extremely seriously” its decision to “…trade in its his…
Read More
…han once, taking cheap shots at political adversaries (including McCain campaign apparatchiks) and using the annoying, sophomoric reference to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat” Party. But Going Rogue was not unpleasant. The second book in the Sarah Palin œuvre, however, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, crosses the line from cute puppy bouncing on his back legs to mangy cur relentlessly humping a visitor’s leg. By all…
Read More
…I’m Jewish, too!” The main reason that I joined was for the opportunity to participate in New Orleans culture and tradition as an insider, a goal that can sometimes take generations to achieve in this close-knit town—a goal shared by most of the members that I spoke with on Saturday, many of whom are young newcomers to the city. Krewe du Jieux offers a chance to join in on the fun, blending Jewish and New Orleanian cultural traditions: a klezmer-i…
Read More…test bit interested in a few hairs?! I just kept on, with my dhikr and the pace. The pace that is like a rushing river. The pull, like a string in my heart getting ever more taut. Soon, she just disappeared. At another point, an African guy circled close enough to me from behind that his elbow stayed square in my back for more than one of the sides; and so, I told him, in English too, “remove your elbow from my back,” and he did, and then he too d…
Read More