Religion Dispatches
…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…
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…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…
Read More…slogans about immigration reform. On line I heard that parishes with large numbers of undocumented immigrants had received many tickets. No outside food or water, statues, gifts or selfie sticks were permitted. Despite 10,000 folding chairs, most of us would have no choice but to stand. Once in my appointed place behind the last row of seats, I found myself in a community of fellow pilgrims, lottery winners from local parishes, nearby colleges, an…
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…ualism is bad. Also, he notes but offers no explanation for the decreasing number of marriages in many countries. I am glad to see that in Section 34 he understands this basic fact of contemporary western culture: The ideal of marriage, marked by a commitment to exclusivity and stability, is swept aside whenever it proves inconvenient or tiresome. The fear of loneliness and the desire for stability and fidelity exist side by side with a growing fe…
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…age. His 2012 book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar, has sold widely. Over the phone, I asked Rinzler why he and Burrows had chosen to establish the studio as a for-profit company. “We really wanted to make sure we had all the resources we need for supporting people who are trying meditation for the first time,” Rinzler explained. Because they’re a business, there’s more professionalism. The teachers they’ve hired show up on time, and, as Rinzler put…
Read More…cut at a random strip mall barbershop in Atlanta, that he shows up at the Daytona 500 sporting a Bass ProShops buttondown, and that his wife buys him skinny jeans at the Gap—an anecdote meant to telegraph regular-guy likeability and connubial charm, but that instead carries the undeniable scent of humiliation, as in, your wife bought you skinny jeans? It’s all about as convincing as those photos of John Kerry in hunting camouflage that circulated…
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…for a meeting in Providence’s new Freemason-themed hotel, I got a surprise phonecall from Father Isaac, the cassocked gentle giant who serves as Eastern Orthodox chaplain there. We hadn’t known each other well while I was a student, but I’d always liked him. Upon hearing I was in town, he thought he’d ring me up, and what followed was certainly the longest conversation we’d ever had together. He wished me well, but much more, he thanked God in a d…
Read More…of inner stillness in a busy, often violent world. Certainly, the sage of Daytona Beach conveys volumes on these topics. But his body of work—especially in texts like Jesus and the Disinherited and Luminous Darkness—juxtaposed the inwardness of faith with a slow-burning scrutiny of social relationships. Thurman’s take on self-deception is especially important to retrieve in a society where self-righteousness lurks in a thousand places, including…
Read More…and public education are gearing up for a fight. In a recent letter to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, president of the Board of Trustees of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, wrote, “Who should make the decision about how much money any citizen contributes to religious groups—that citizen, or the government? Most Americans would have no trouble answering that question. All of us want the right to freely ma…
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…ans would be attracted to, appreciate and consider careers in science (the number is decreasing annually). I bet we’d have more productive conversation among students and leaders of science and religion around the many profound issues in our nation that engage both: abortion, medical care, stem cells, homosexuality, and genomic research. The battle rhetoric would fade and, more than likely, movies like Expelled wouldn’t be made in the first place….
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