Religion Dispatches
…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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…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…
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…for the elderly, or the dynamics of personal relationships conducted over Skype, even though these changes have a bearing on the way we relate to other human beings. As an alternative to this silence, Staley’s work touches on two possible modes of religious response to technology, which I’ll call—because sci-fi topics deserve sci-fi names—the Strong and Weak Theories of Theorobotics. The Strong Theory, which occupies the balance of Staley’s disse…
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…the organizer is fearful enough to keep his identity secret, speaking via skype from an underground gay club. Russia: Teen Support Group Leader Charged Under Propaganda Law At BuzzFeed, Max Seddon reports on Russian officials charging a support group for LGBT teenagers under the country’s anti-gay “propaganda” law. “On Monday, Russia’s state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, announced that it was charging journalist Elena Klimova, the group’…
Read More…dent assistants who have been monitoring ISIS-related chats on Twitter and Telegram report that the postings are as frequent and dedicated as ever, vowing to continue the struggle against the kafir anywhere in the world. So in that sense, ISIS does live, since it never really died. It’s the label for a virulent movement of resistance and unrest throughout the world, and will live as long as its brand name continues to inspire activists and strike…
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…came clear to some Jewish observers. This was ruefully acknowledged in the telegram sent home by two rabbis from Vienna who visited Palestine in 1898, the year after the First Zionist Congress: ‘‘The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.’’ More explicit Jewish warnings about the presence of the Arabs of Palestine were offered by the Zionist philosopher Ahad Ha’am (Asher Ginzburg) and his disciple Isaac Epstein. In his Hebrew-langu…
Read More…ure What ‘Progressive’ Means. “Define it! Own it! Spare no expense! Send a telegram to the Soviets if you have to!” We briefly considered reminding Our Dear Overlord that the Soviets had been superannuated back when he was still in grade school. But we like our knuckles un-rapped and our invoices signed, so we decided—not for the first time—that discretion really is the better part of valor. Besides, we weren’t entirely sure how one can chuck a li…
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…s suppression of the revolt. This also helps to explain the congratulatory telegram sent to President Calles by the Methodist annual conference meeting in Saltillo in October 1928. The ministers lauded Calles for his “brilliant governmental action” in the aftermath of the assassination of president-elect Alvaro Obregón (a revolutionary general who had already served as president) at the hands of Catholic partisan José de León Toral. (Incidentally,…
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…person need to wait days or weeks to communicate by exchange of letter or telegram. The telephone promised a pathway out of our isolation and loneliness. In 1926, Arthur Pound sung its praises: “We who are still young have beheld millions of farm families emerge from isolation, the tucked away mountain hamlet and prairie village brought into touch with the busy currents of trade and social intercourse. Many new tools and systems originated by sci…
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