Religion Dispatches
…n as it reinforces heteropatriarchal relations that reiterate fascist desire and the religious conviction that they are meant to rule over the nation and world….
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…tion-driven investment in other worlds. Then Hurricane Sandy arrived, blew New York away, and as the convention center where Comic Con had been held drained of water from the Hudson River; and as the lower half of Manhattan met Halloween in utter darkness, I found myself shuttered in without electricity in southern Connecticut, watching the world fall apart in New York City, where even today people are scrambling for gasoline to power their genera…
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…t “while many who are leaving may affirm the adding women to the current structure, more will need to be done to make the church relevant in the lives of people.” For her, that includes the inclusion of the voices of the non ordained, LGBTQ people, and the divorced in discussions of the church’s role in society. All of the ordained women agreed that even if Pope Francis’s commission to study the role of women deacons in the church eventually leads…
Read More…n Reciprocity, a group that holds spiritual retreats for homeless youth in New York City, many of them LGBT. The organization was founded by Taz Tagore, a Buddhist whose family fled east Africa during an ethnic cleansing, and Adam Bucko, a “mystic Christian” whose family fled communist Poland. Philippines: Pope’s Visit Excites Young Catholics A Bloomberg story on the excitement caused by Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines this week included t…
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…he casual observer. As the world watched a viral pandemic take millions of lives and struggle to develop medical interventions and preventative measures, much of my Facebook feed took on an air of conspiracy. Specifically, QAnon emerged as an answer to an increasingly chaotic world. QAnon is a conspiracy theory that, frankly, reads like word salad. For supporters, however, it’s a puzzle of cryptic codes and symbols that unveil a Satanic pedophile…
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…mall town, with a population in 2009 of about 800 people. It is in upstate New York. It is not my small town, nor is it likely yours; and yet each of these places is someone’s neighborhood. This time, it is only an hour away for me. Picketing as “The Workingman’s Means of Communication” On March 2, 2011, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in response to a series of prior decisions around Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing of a Marine’s funeral….
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…, only Allah is allowed to punish with fire. Another hadith proclaims that breaking a bone of the dead is like breaking the bone of a living person—it is forbidden. Muslim scholars around the world have noted that certain practices, such as the ritual bathing of the body, can be modified during times of emergencies, including pandemics. Additionally, the number of people present at a Muslim funeral can also be reduced as long as the funeral prayer…
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…rld as we know it is rapidly approaching,” Hagee wrote in his 2006 book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. “Just before us is a nuclear countdown with Iran,” he wrote, “followed by Ezekiel’s war [as described in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39], and then the final battle—the battle of Armageddon.” The same year, Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, one of the largest Christian grassroots movements in America. It hosts a yearly July W…
Read More…s-than-desired ratings. Which makes, at least momentarily, the boroughs of New York City a Glenn Beck radio free zone. (Word has it syndicators are looking for a new outlet.) Perhaps Beck’s self-styled turn to the prophetic last summer and fall—which included forays into the world of Black theology and the mysteries of the Bat Creek Stone, as well as his lachrymose and prayer-scented DC Rally in August —didn’t go over so well with hardboiled cons…
Read More…toric. When Iowa did it in 2009, it was a shocker. Iowa? Really? But, when New York did it this past weekend – I predict it will be remembered as the tipping point. “The more that other states recognize the fairness and the importance of passing equal marriage rights, the more likely it is to pass here,” said Patrick Wojahn, the chairman of the board of the Equality Maryland Foundation, which fought this year’s marriage battle in Annapolis. “It’s…
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