Search for "cheap airline tickets for des moines ia to phoenix az phone number 1-800-299-7264"

The Contested Religious Powers of Baseball on Display in Cuba

By Sean O'Neil

…f taxi drivers in Cuba, who don’t need to offer us elaborations about such desires because they had us at “I love America.” To appreciate the ways religion and baseball have often been imbricated in U.S. representations of Cuba, consider the film Major League. The comedy was released in 1998 but is a bona fide cult classic years later, a status bolstered by Netflix and its ilk. One of the film’s most popular characters is a Cuban exile named Pedro…

Mormon Women Knock at the Door, Are Turned Away

By Holly Welker

…e session public was announced after Ordain Women requested and was denied tickets in September. Although some media outlets referred to the action as a protest, Kelly, an international human rights attorney from Washington, D.C., said it should be more accurately understood as a conversation. “There isn’t a clear way to reach the prophet or the leaders. We can’t simply call them up and ask them to pray about an issue that is of concern to us,” s…

Blame Series Bonus: Why We Want That Dish For Free, an Uncut Interview with Bertram Malle

By Andrew Aghapour

…rse of growing up in a community, is really as an extension of ordinary social cognition. By “social cognition” we refer to peoples’ ability to look at a stream of behavior, parse it into its actions, recognize intentions that underlie these actions, and then infer goals, beliefs, desires, emotions, from the person’s behavior. All of that is necessary for coordination in any kind of community. But because social communities come with tension betwe…

No God but Country: The Religion of John McCain Has Something Important to Tell Us

By Kathryn Lofton

…tell the tale of the cross and the dirt. Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll find diary upon diary authored by John McCain keening for Christ’s particular grace. Or maybe we’ll hear stories (from his daughters, from his sons) of how embarrassed, how mortified he was to be such a religious monkey, how certain he was that The Code of Conduct was all he should need, and how it was that that man, that eight-year President, made him be so very evangelical in o…

Paranormal Vodka, Exorcists and a Demonic Doll: Welcome to Paracon, Based on the Work of the Demon-Hunters Who Inspired the ‘Conjuring’ Series

By Eric Harrelson and Joseph P. Laycock

…ir roommate over a period of months in 1970. Although I can’t find an official number, a casino employee tells us over 5,000 tickets have been sold; 5,000 pilgrims who’ve made the trek from around the country to pay their respects to Annabelle, and are willing to wait hours to do so. On the convention floor, an eclectic group of vendors hocks their wares, from Ouija boards and books about ghost hunting to bath bombs shaped like horror movie icons….

Pope Praises ‘Complementarity’ & Resists Gay Ambassador; Irish Religious Leaders Spar Over Marriage; Colombian Atty Gen Cites ‘Bogus’ Study Opposing Adoption; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…the closing and blocking of independent print and social media. As in Russia, Kazakhstan has mandated that NGOs register with the government, and authorities enjoy wide discretion to deny such status and close down groups for alleged, often minor violations of the law. Last year – setting the stage for the anti-LGBT “propaganda law” – the government introduced criminal charges for “spreading false information.” Kazakhstan’s crackdown on civil soc…

Spiritual Unplugging, Or What to Do When There is Wifi at the Ashram

By Matt Hamilton

…elt right. I wanted to make the priest’s total commitment to service, especially a service so rooted in wisdom, social justice, and peace. That this commitment entailed celibacy didn’t seem to matter—it was a sacrifice, after all. The vows only legitimated my deeper desire. Until I had a chance to live it out. Something about the politics of living in community coupled with the nobility of the cause—the work of God! – put a sour taste in my mouth….

A Valentine for the World…and for the Church I Left

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…led those words. I wasn’t sitting in a beat-up car at a stoplight in South Des Moines, I was a sanctuary, a light in the window, a refuge for all who sojourned in God. I mattered. That’s why I worked so hard for so long. I gave my utmost for His highest. You know I did. I gave him everything I had to give until there was nothing left to give. The World Was Here All Along Years later, another very different epiphany in a car. My first secular relat…

Pop-Culture Angels Are More Than Just Embarrassing Kitsch

By Ed Simon

…ts wings,” It’s a Wonderful Life combines political radicalism and existential despair into a strangely harmonious whole. Smarmy angel Kevin Smith’s 1999 fantasy comedy Dogma generated howls of protest from those who felt that the film was generally impious and specifically anti-Catholic, despite the fact that its director was a graduate of New Jersey parochial schools (or maybe because of it). Real life Hollywood best friends Ben Affleck and Ma…

How Much Did Jesus Care About Sex?

By Peter Laarman

…he marriage sacrament by arguing that God blesses all deeply committed marriage bonds, not just marriages made by heterosexuals. What progressive Christians won’t do, however, is renounce all sexuality or follow people like Dreher in imagining that sexual desire is always and simply the enemy of godliness. Yes, as far as we know, both Jesus of Nazareth and Saul/Paul of Tarsus (“Our Founders”) were deeply ascetic people. Others walking in the Way…