Religion Dispatches
…e locally one needs to know about before going. In Indonesia this would be cheap so not a big deal, but who knows in Makkah and Madinah; and what about cleaning my underwear? But some of these are made from such lovely cotton, the pre-wash would just be more work for me, and not at all necessary. Then I wondered what the heck I would do with all this white when I return. Only the pant outfits will be possibly integrated into everyday wear; and hon…
Read More…o get my arm out of her left arm link. I was conscious then not to get separated. But we managed the pause, the wave and kiss; and with each circuit, we got closer. Not surprisingly, the closer you get, the tighter the crowd is. What was a surprise was the more intense the current of the raging river of people became, the more pull on the heartstrings. Still with the dhikr on my lips, I swam the course and was at the same time pulled taut by the m…
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…vexing question. Who really wrote America by Heart? The blogosphere has vibrated with talk about Jessica Gavora, whose name does not appear on the cover but whom Palin thanks for her “most important work on America by Heart.” This would not be the first time that a politician has collaborated with a ghostwriter, of course, so that’s not the point. But are we really supposed to believe that, amid her self-professed busy schedule, Sarah Palin spends…
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…c space. The federal highway system—the real America—on the other hand, operates as a widely dispersed, center-less system for individual travelers on separate routes, an enactment of the American protestant primordial act: the prioritizing, centering, and sacralizing of the individual in pursuit of their own happiness. A few months ago, when the California Department of Transportation closed a portion of a major highway, California I-405, for exp…
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…has changed. Catholic hospital systems are well established and fully integrated into healthcare delivery in the U.S. In fact, the Catholic Church manages a full 1/5 of all U.S. hospitals, according to The Revealer. Those hospitals are 50% funded by public funds. These Catholic hospitals are increasingly overseen not by women religious, but by laypeople trained in hospital administration. Indeed, the very success of the Catholic health care syst…
Read More…rab democracy, because in the battle for resources, for alliances and for fraternity, they have largely sided against Muslims. Muslims, and Arabs in particular, have been conditioned by decades of realpolitik, by decades of Western support for their oppressors, by images from Afghanistan and Iraq, by constant betrayals, to mistrust the US and the West. These masses are now demanding and gaining the political space to express themselves. They wil…
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…ny 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 Buddhist Himalayan region, which separates China from India. There were large pr…
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…But instead of inspiring figures of human potential, they come off more as cheap foils that Brooks is using to market his theories to the wealthy, literate class of policy wonks that he hopes will take his ideas seriously. More, Brooks is no Rousseau. And no novelist. If there is something mildly, warmly inspiring about his theoretical claims, they fall flat when explored through the medium of these sadly hollow characters. Brooks is perhaps best…
Read More…gths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples.” I suppose Boehner can pander to the religious right and continue to defend “traditional” marriage, but I think it’s fair to ask why—when jobless rates continue to hover near 10 percent—which issue may be most important to God: how people arrange their intimate relationships, or how we feed and care for those families…
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…: “I put my trust in Howard Moody and God, in that order.” We are forever grateful for this good man. ____________ Editor’s Note: As a generalist, an editor frequently must guide and shape work on unfamiliar topics. Having heard only that Rev. Moody was one of those “hip, old preachers in the Village,” I set out to do the obligatory research before editing the above memorial by early friend of RD, Tom Davis. What I found is a life that defies both…
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