Religion Dispatches
…ave asked them to do the same and then to select a good time to talk or to skype. Then there are only one or two things that I feel I need to address before I go. In one case I have already written my concerns and now must decide what to do with them: post them as letters, publish them here, or just read them between myself and Allah. Most of my life, I am here to say, humbly has been in a trajectory that is in accordance to my best intentions. I…
Read More…is morning, I thought, I don’t want to get up! To say nothing of a planned Skype appointment with some late night professor from Australia right after my little nap. I could just as well have slept on and on, I thought. But then, I also hate sleeping in the day, so it’s a catch-22. I had such a wonderful conversation with the professor that I was happy to be on my way and back to blogging, even though this is not one of my best days. That’s why I…
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…arry religiously unaffiliated people. Earlier this year, I gave a talk via Skype to the Yale Humanists, a group organized by writer and Yale Humanist Chaplain Chris Stedman. Stedman told me the group had mostly begun with atheists and agnostics, but increasingly more and more Nones were turning up. And these Nones were interested in community service, community bonding, and working alongside the religious, not in opposition to them. I found the sa…
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…and white outfits on the same day). In reality, I had interviewed Mpofu by Skype when she was still in Harare, and she had invited me to the Kentucky conference. Even though she knew I am not a Christian, Mpofu asked me to come forward so she could lay hands on me. I hesitated: I don’t believe what they believe; would I mislead them by letting her do it? On the other hand, it had become part of my reporting, and I was, no doubt, intensely curious…
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…19-year-old boy’s name was Kamal,” Asif explained to me in English over a Skype chat. “I talked to him very politely, trying to understand what they want from me. We had a little chat about religion and humanity.” What Asif learned is that his would-be murderer, ten years his junior, did not want anything from him in particular, declining even a neighborly offer of food between the bars. Kamal and the other young incarcerated members of Banglade…
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…d beyond. They took some time from their busy touring schedule to chat via Skype about this accidental movement that’s now becoming a global phenomenon. Is this how you envisioned Sunday Assembly playing out when you launched your first service in London in January? Pippa Evans: No, we didn’t think it would take off this fast and that we’d be touring around the world spreading the word of the Sunday Assembly. We thought this would take a lot lon…
Read More…ding around Wyoming in a well-appointed bus. He spoke with me recently via Skype from the front seat of his Suburban as his wife drove him to another campaign engagement. Chris, a very amenable guy, is not only running for congress, but teaching SIX sections of Political Science at Casper College. That would be yeoman’s duty without running for congress, but in an election where his opponent has about 40 million to spend, it’s a bit daunting! Stud…
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…me a nationwide exercise in tipping over sacred cows. I recently spoke via Skype with S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, longtime RD contributor, about how the supposedly “blasphemous” has become the everyday and how new narratives of the Christmas season are changing how we celebrate. __________ Do you feel the increased observance of Festivus shows how Christmas is becoming a more democratized holiday that’s for “the rest of us” as they say? Yes definite…
Read More…and deliver them by raven rather than a world of jet airliners, email and Skype. How many more abuse victims are likely to accumulate (Cruz has called Latin America a continued “playground for pedophiles”) as the commission works on “long-term” solutions? John Allen just reported that the commission, which has been in existence for two years, hasn’t been involved to date in the training on the prevention of sex abuse required of new bishops: What…
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…sending her to conversion therapy, her parents have accepted Alex and they Skype with their daughter and her girlfriend a couple of times a week. There are even jokes about future grandchildren. For Mormons, after all, family is supposed to be forever, even when that family doesn’t end up fitting expectations or the mold. This defining commitment to the continuity of family has fueled a quiet grassroots rejection of the new LDS Church-announced po…
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