Religion Dispatches
…ors. I would like to be surprised. Visit our RDBook page for a complete list of our interviews with authors… Comments? We enthusiastically welcome any response to this interview, or to any of our features. Write to us!…
Read More
…w empathy to the plight of the stranger. Most of the children up for scrutiny (839, to be precise) would be allowed to stay, along with their families. The rest would be deported after being given the right of appeal, which many are attempting to do right now. A Xenophobic Israel? Tasked as it is with realizing the self-determination of the Jewish people and serving as a shelter against anti-Semitic persecution, Israel’s standing among the nations…
Read More
…er border security, we forget that such measures have grossly inflated the number of undocumented immigrants residing in the US. Half of these used to return to Mexico annually, but researchers now estimate that only one-fourth do so today; stricter border enforcement measures since 1994 have staunched the cyclical flow of the return home of millions. The crisis of 12 million “illegal” immigrants is one of our own creation. The missing clergy coul…
Read More
…ion found that illegal immigrants’ contribution in taxes already balances any increased costs for public services. Imagine the tax benefit if all 12 million were legalized and all of them were paying taxes instead of working off the books. Immigrants grow the US economy already and could do so even more, if legalized. Those who are employed on the books already contribute to Social Security. Since many are young and won’t draw benefits for years,…
Read More
…local politicians. Journalists seemed to become the medium through which any analyst and former official with a view on Tibet and China could fire a cheap shot. The Indian government’s assertiveness vis-à-vis China is refreshing (though achieving it at the expense of refugees and Buddhist monks who fled China at 14 to get an education smacks of bad taste.) The affair has also unsettled the sentiments of those living in India’s predominantly Buddh…
Read More…ovement called “rebellion” reinstated dictatorship. It’s not ironic that many Egyptians don’t care. It’s disgusting. The military went after Copts at Maspero, and few said anything. (While, we should add, the Brotherhood was at least ostensibly in charge.) Now they’ve gone after the most organized political opposition in the country, killing hundreds and wounding thousands—blood spilled is not soon forgotten. The Egyptian military’s crackdown on…
Read More
…y well. So Disney’s take on life in New Orleans and the bayou is at best a cheap commercial ploy, and at worst, a revisionist religious and racist nightmare. Yes, I know, it’s just fantasy, right? But your kids are going to be in my classroom later, and I am going to have to deconstruct this mess. Note: spoilers ahead. If you want to see the mess, stop here. The New Orleans and the Louisiana Bayou that Disney’s writers have concocted for viewer pl…
Read More
…ut the same law that buys a venison steak in the Great Northwoods brings a cheap Taurus pistol to Baltimore, to people who also feel unheard and neglected. (Never mind the strange psychology of the “lone wolf.”) So the freedom to live without threat and the freedom to own a gun are at odds. Someone will have to win and someone will have to lose. I mean this quite literally. The only way to have meaningful gun control will be to vote people out of…
Read More…available—my Lord, all you have to do is walk into a 7-11 or any shop on any street in America and have access to them—is that right to access those and have them paid for, is that such a towering good that it would suffocate the rights of conscience?” It’s one of the bishops’ favorite arguments: that birth control is so cheap and so widely available that it isn’t even a question of whether the religious freedom of objecting organizations should…
Read More…y Reids, or Romneys. Just last week, Jan Shipps, a longtime scholar and canny observer of Mormon experience, wagered that Angle would beat Romney if he were on the ticket. I think she’s right. What’s happening in Nevada is the ugly down side of a speculation-and-spending fueled boom cycle, with many voters looking for a politician who will mirror their own feelings of fear and resentment. How ugly is it getting? Check out Sharron Angle’s latest te…
Read More