Religion Dispatches
…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…
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…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…
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…ualism is bad. Also, he notes but offers no explanation for the decreasing number of marriages in many countries. I am glad to see that in Section 34 he understands this basic fact of contemporary western culture: The ideal of marriage, marked by a commitment to exclusivity and stability, is swept aside whenever it proves inconvenient or tiresome. The fear of loneliness and the desire for stability and fidelity exist side by side with a growing fe…
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…te segregation and economic favoritism. When I spoke with Rothstein on the phone, he underscored the long-term effects of this last policy. During the 1940s and 1950s, suburban subdivisions were built in St. Louis, and throughout the country, using federal loans stipulating that no homes be sold to African Americans. Priced at about $125,000 in today’s dollars, these were affordable—with a mortgage—to working class families, black or white. Yet bl…
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…h police but did not disrupt the celebration. Ambassadors from Britain and Canada also attended. Canada: Government will expunge convictions Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government would “expunge criminal convictions against Canadians once charged with crimes based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” Lithuania: Rejection of partnership legislation nevertheless suggests progress Earlier th…
Read More…ing will begin: Did the nomination of the Alaska governor help or hurt the ticket? Did playing solely to the base—religious conservatives in particular—limited the ticket’s appeal? Does the Party have to become more mainstream, more inclusive, and more tolerant? Is Palin to be the Party’s savior? Or, have the American people learned more than enough about some of the less-than-ethical ways she goes about her business? Everyone will have an opinion…
Read More…es ECI’s leadership – knows this to be the case. Which makes ECI’s video a cheap lie — yet another in a long litany of desperate efforts by the far right to convert the largely liberal American Jewish community to neo-conservatism, hawkish policies on Israel, and the belief that “Barack Hussein Obama” is a Muslim. That said, there actually are two interesting forms of antisemitism going on here. First is the antisemitism of ECI itself. To tug at…
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…I fervently wish that Mr. Obama would say a bit more about the problem of cheap grace. Reminding us that people who work very hard for very little are not the abusers of cheap grace, but that others in well-feathered nests who are preaching sacrifice might be in real trouble on the cheap grace front. Obama cannot and should not condemn those in the electorate who buy into Romney’s “there will be showers of blessing” message, but he probably does …
Read More…eland, are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Hong Kong: Canada encourages marriage equality; US Religious Right group launches chapter The anti-gay MassResistance also announced the creation of a Hong Kong chapter it says is led by a Catholic priest “and a core group of eight veteran Hong Kong family activists.” In contrast, Canada’s consul general in Hong King Jeff Nankivell told the South China Morning Post that if Hong Kong w…
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…o’s Unity Mosque Samra Habib’s “Queering Islam” in the Advocate profiles a number of LGBT and affirming Muslim leaders in the U.S. and Canada, among them El-Farouk Khaki from Toronto’s Unity Mosque: Unlike at traditional mosques, everything is open for debate and dialogue at Unity mosque. Congregants are encouraged to speak about their individual experiences with the religion. It makes sense that Khaki would launch the mosque to create a safe spac…
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