Religion Dispatches
…campaigns. In a perfect world, he said, evangelicals would be counting on Fort Worth-trained minister Mike Huckabee to help turn out conservatives for primaries and precinct conventions. Without Huckabee running, White said Perry can become the favorite “because we live in a less-than-perfect world.” The ministers and religious conservatives in White’s e-mail network are waiting for a signal to begin a national “Draft Perry” movement, he said. Th…
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…displayed by civilians until the Civil War. Once the flag was lowered over Fort Sumter, flags rose over houses and wagons and even hats. The next major watershed in civilian relations to flags was 9/11. Gardella writes that “According to the largest flag manufacturer in the United States, Annin & Company, more flags were sold in the ten days following September 11 than in the whole year before. Orders became backed up until midsummer of 2002. Wal-…
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…t services were not held by the English but by French Huguenots in 1564 at Fort Caroline (today St. Augustine Florida). In understanding the complexity of early American religion one also needs to take into account the presence of Yoruba and Igbo believers, as well as Muslims, first brought into the English speaking colonies as African slaves a decade after Archer died. One should also consider the intricacies in New England religion (which didn’t…
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…ion. As moviegoers departed the particular showing of Woodlawn I viewed in Fort Worth, Texas, they were greeted with posters for coming attractions. The first I saw had a dapper Will Smith standing in profile in front of gleaming white football helmets, with his chin resting pensively in his hand. The words “based on a true story,” and “even legends need a hero” surrounded the title of the film, Concussion, and its release date was abbreviated by…
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…have gained something as well. Reading Monument Wars, I was struck by how fortunate the Mall has been in its public art. Savage makes an excellent case for the aesthetic success of the Washington Monument, an unlikely harbinger of modernism when it was completed in 1885. The Lincoln Memorial invites a kind of reverential contemplation in the visitor—a rare feat for such an iconic locale—and even compels many of them into a careful reading of two…
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…es on Moses Bruno’s land. We found the records in the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas and when the librarians brought the boxes and boxes of letters and documents out for us to read, my mother and aunt and cousins, well, we cried. In a two year exchange of letters between the BIA and the oil companies it was decided that even though the fencing for the mud pits was not in place, it was posted with signs. Trouble was, the horse could not rea…
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…I have hand-counted 29 non-NOM staffers attending the rally—about the same number that have attended every other event on this tour.” They were outnumbered by those who came in support of marriage equality. … about 95 marriage equality supporters marched in to the event to counter-protest NOM on a sidewalk across from the event. Impressive. Once again, NOM has been embarrassed on this tour, drawing significantly fewer supporters to their event tha…
Read More…nation.” I’ve spoken to board member Don McLeroy quite a few times on the phone and he genuinely seems like someone who wants to be understood and have people appreciate what he’s doing. (I’ve never met or spoken to Cynthia Dunbar, but she strikes me as someone who really doesn’t care what people think of her.) So, I feel like calling up McLeroy and saying, “You, sir, are a cheater!” Because from the perspective of the literal-minded (and fundame…
Read More…ty [women’s auxiliary] meeting was a Proposition 8 organizing meeting—with phone trees and the bishop coming in and saying you’ve got to do this. We just left shaking, and she hasn’t gone back. She never set foot in that building again. Through my kids’ eyes, I see things in a fresh way. So I was thinking about the Utah Pride Parade, which is now almost bigger than the Days of ’47 [Pioneer Day parade commemorating Mormon pioneers]. This is a para…
Read More…pean_douchebag” wasn’t questioning which game the woman was playing on her phone, he was referencing the abundance of facial hair on the young woman’s face—a nod towards her Sikh beliefs of not altering her body image. Unaware that others around him might practice faiths besides his own, “european_douchebag” posted the picture under the Reddit tab “Funny,” hoping to get an elbow-in-the-side snickering reaction from the online community. But what h…
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