Religion Dispatches
…reating serious backlash among BYU students and faculty. Since then, Honor Code enforcement has been conducted through referrals—even third party referrals—of suspect students to a campus Honor Code office, a system of enforcement that has created significant opportunities for abuse. (When I was a BYU student, it was possible to make an anonymous third-party referral.) Honor Code enforcement on campus has been used to bait and target gays and libe…
Read More
…d. Avishai’s emphasis on creating a stronger Israeli business class is not new, but what distinguishes The Hebrew Republic is Avishai’s insistence that this Israeli business class integrate Arab citizens, the Fifth Tribe, more fully into the body of the state. It is, indeed, not overstating Avishai’s case to say that his vision is completely dependent on the integration of Israel’s Arab sector, and on Israeli Arabs embracing such a market-based pr…
Read More
…ke the pebbles in a gathering landslide. None of this guarantees Trump and Republicans will reclaim power in 2024. The possibility is still best classified as a strong maybe. But the map of hyperlocalism is blinking red around the world. And to the extent that events—such as this new war in the Middle East—inflame the texture of these relationships and multiply and intensify their presence, the probabilities will inexorably shift from maybe to lik…
Read More
…wouldn’t be black enough for black-ish‘s father of the house. Assuming all African Americans believe because they are African Americans flies in the face of a growing trend, tracked by pollsters. The Nones, or unaffiliated, represent a growing percentage of the US population. And African Americans represent an important demographic within this growth. Keep in mind, too, that the number of African Americans falling into this category has almost dou…
Read More
…Donald Trump. . . You have basically guaranteed him the nomination for the Republican Party in 2024, and you’re going to give him a big weapon to go after Joe Biden or, you know, whatever Democrat emerges in 2024 if they don’t convict him. While it’s wrongheaded to worry about riling up Trump’s base if there’s evidence he committed criminal offenses, I think Jennings is right to a degree. The stakes are high in this case—for Attorney General Merri…
Read More
…is un-African’ myth is anchored on an old practice of selectively invoking African culture by those in power. African women are familiar with the mantra. “It is un-African” whenever they assert their rights, particularly those rights that involve reproductive autonomy and sexual sovereignty. The mistaken claim that anything is un-African is based on the essentialist assumption that Africa is a homogeneous entity. In reality, however, Africa is mad…
Read More
…omen’s ordination. In the hands of Promise Keepers, Galatians 3:28 took on new meanings. This past weekend, “slave nor free” was translated loosely as “the haves and the have-nots.” The reconciliation between the rich and poor didn’t play prominently, either in the event’s promos or at the stadium rally itself. PK did offer a “pay what you can afford” program to woo low-income rally-goers, and it also urged attendees to bring food donations for th…
Read More…t Mark were chiseled from the casements. The revolutionary tricolor of the new republic flew from the lovely old Venetian fortress which dominates the view of this exceptionally pretty Greek harbor to this day. In short, these Greek islanders were being forced to celebrate their freedom. By the French. How had things come to such a strange pass? The rituals were organized by an up-and-coming French general, Napoleon Buonaparte, commander (at the t…
Read More
…guson. So large numbers of African Americans who were displaced by urban renewal, by slum clearance in the central city, moved outside the central city, north and west, into places like Ferguson. Since African Americans were prohibited from living in most other places, those communities became predominantly or nearly all black. So that’s how Ferguson became the Ferguson we know today. Why is this history so important for understanding the African…
Read More
…nt, and a pledge at the end. A final admonition declares that breaking the Code will result in immediate execution. The Code is illustrated with images pulled from a website promoting the 2007 Swedish film Arn: The Knights Templar. This past spring, copies of the Code were mysteriously distributed across Michoacan. Like La Familia, members of the Knights Templar must refrain from drugs and must commit to routine drug testing, but unlike La Famila…
Read More