Religion Dispatches
…onal role as the origin and judge of good and evil. But there is also good news. The fruit from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil is finally ripening. The mythical “Kingdom of Heaven” is, as Jesus said, not supernatural, not “coming.” It is the only place it could ever be: within and among us. That “kingdom” exists when we can treat all others as our brothers and sisters, children of God, and the fruits of life’s longing for itself. Betw…
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…ho have served in the territories speak for themselves about the level of brutality and wanton cruelty there. They are not refuseniks. Most of them return to the Israel Defense Forces every year for reserve duty. They want their own society to wake up to what Israeli soldiers are being asked to do and, sadly, what some of them eagerly volunteer to do. In the organization’s traveling exhibitions and on its Web site are firsthand reports of soldiers…
Read More…arah Palin is out in the parking lot doing doughnuts in her tour bus. Even CNN abandoned covering the announcement a few minutes early. With fantasy candidates and Fox news celebrities turning their heads, Republicans are showing about as much discipline and focus as US Weekly readers. (Maybe less.) And Democrats are beginning to exploit it. Romney has his weaknesses, no doubt. Everything about his self-presentation telegraphs that he really doesn…
Read More…s against LGBT people in Uganda, as the AP reminds us: Last year a tabloid newspaper in Uganda [Rolling Stone] published the names and photos of men it alleged were gay. One cover included the words “Hang Them.” Shortly afterward, a prominent gay rights activist whose picture was published was bludgeoned to death, though authorities contend David Kato’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with the killing. Life has never been easy for LGBT people…
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…ng cultural narrative. In fact, the “rise of the nones” story is obscuring news of a different, equally fascinating trend in the world of religion. While small in total number, the fastest growing religious population in North America today (after Islam) is NOT the “nones” It’s “other religion,” a category that includes anything from Baha’i and Taosim to Wicca and Zoroastrianism. Part of the growth in “other religion” segment is being fueled by re…
Read More…iated the wedding of two men in Badalona, Spain, last Saturday. At Morocco World News, Karla Dieseldorff writes, “An image of Taleb dressed in hijab, next to the newlywed couple at the city town hall has made the rounds on social media networks stirring outrage and receiving all kinds of comments.” Fátima Taleb, 39, is the first ever Muslim woman to be elected councilor in Guanyem Badalona, in eastern Catalonia, Spain, according to Spanish newspap…
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…ral practices.” But, Gibson reports, an editorial in the Southern Cross, a newspaper run by the bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, criticized the law, and called on the Catholic Church in Africa to “stand with the powerless” and “sound the alarm at the advance throughout Africa of draconian legislation aimed at criminalizing homosexuals.” Discussing this division among Catholics, William Lindsey writes at Bilgrimage: As Kevin Clarke…
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…and invites participation in a community defined by such love, we want the world to be ruled by a law of “tit-for-tat,” a law according to which love is earned by achievement, and being loved is a sign that one deserves it. And so we find God’s unconditional love to be an affront, and we respond with hostility. In the face of such hostility, how is God to establish a loving relationship with us? Browning’s answer is drawn from his own experience a…
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…en I talk to gay friends about this, they all say the connection is about cruelty and brutality toward animals that are “harvested” or otherwise abused in the industrial food system. Maybe it’s a stretch to say that this extra sensitivity to interspecies cruelty derives from gays’ own exposure to cruelty—but it’s at least an idea worth pondering. 11. Interfaith Bullying Reaches Its Limit Ye Olde Mainline Protestants might be evaporating numerical…
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…os. The mass text alerts told people where to go and kept folks abreast of breaking news. 7) Ask for personal engagement and sacrifice. The UUA made a courageous and bold ask of supporters. People were asked to get to Phoenix in July and consider getting arrested. Approximately one-third of those arrested in Phoenix were UUs. Participants were blessed by the experience. Rev. David Miller from Solana Beach, California wrote in a blog post: This wee…
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