Religion Dispatches
…epresents reconciliation, much like the pilgrimage of Cuban-Americans from Miami who are coming to the island this week to celebrate the papal mass through the Archdiocese of Miami, side by side with their Cuban sisters and brothers. Economically and politically, the Church represents a middle ground, critical of Cuba’s Marxist legacy, yet equally critical of the consumerism and consumption that characterizes the United States. There are very few…
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…meals. And during yoga on the first night, our yogi took pictures with her phone as we attempted the warrior pose. Was I back in Los Angeles? Why wasn’t this different? The staff—all devotees of the Ananda movement, a Hindu spiritual fellowship founded in northern California during the late 60s—only reinforced feelings of familiarity. There was Jemal, the dreadlocked, Yale-educated monk who waxed philosophic about the “sublime” benefits of a celib…
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…good move. When I got to the lobby another something told me to dig out my phone and check it for messages. Sure enough, I had one from an unfamiliar number. A woman’s voice said Bedi was still sleeping, exhausted from the previous day’s overseas flight, and needed to reschedule our interview for that afternoon. I called the number back, convinced the opportunity was lost. “I’m here at the hotel now, but I’m booked solid this afternoon—” “Hold on,…
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…y from Victorian sentimentalism. Such angels are on sale at reduced price; cheap wares for cheap faith. It would be an error, however, to fully dismiss pop culture angels. Despite the fact that representations of angels in film and television, comics and music, paperback novels and posters, are filtered through market concerns, such pop culture can still speak to human meaning—and because of that they merit our attention. Besides, the bulk of art…
Read More…urders, 32 attacks and three suicides in Turkey last year. It believes the number of such murders over the past six years is more than 50. Syrian gay refugees in Turkey suffer even more, as their legal status is precarious – they are usually undocumented and most are reluctant to report assaults to police, our reporter says. The Turkish authorities cited “safeguarding security and public order” as the reason for banning Gay Pride in Istanbul this…
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…isiting Muslim counseling centers for specialized psychotherapy in greater numbers. Far from being an abstract term, intersectionality is necessary for the very survival of minority communities. Above all, though, it’s MASGD’s own community who must take priority, and that entails strengthening LGBT Muslims’ bonds with other progressive movements who seek justice and equality for all Americans. The group is fiscally sponsored by the National Queer…
Read More…joys unified support, including among religious leaders. Specifically, Del Rio spoke of the ceremony’s “wide ecumenical touch” and pointed to the participation of various clergy members. However, the clergy present at the event all lead religious bodies that are miniscule in comparison to Puerto Rico’s leading religious traditions. The stance on this matter of far more significant Puerto Rican Catholic, Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders was tota…
Read More…half. There were still probably 80 empty seats, and it was clear that some number of attendees had free tickets. The largest financial supporter of the event was a local news/talk radio station and its representatives were the only media allowed in. As I arrived with my Religion Dispatches press badge they stopped me before I even got to the door. I chatted with an AP reporter and he said AP had been trying for weeks to gain media access—but that…
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…y. Here’s how Anderson had responded to the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida: “These homosexuals are a bunch of perverts and pedophiles, that’s who was a victim here, a bunch of disgusting homosexuals at a gay bar,” he said. He later added: “The good news is that at least 50 of these pedophiles are not going to be harming children anymore. The bad news is that a lot of the homos in the bar are still alive, so they’re going to contin…
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…cost of true discipleship. The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap…We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition…Was there ever a more terrible and disastrous instance of Christianizing the world than this? It’s regrettable, I think, that “cheap grace” has turned into a kind of meme that Rod Dreher can toss into his debate with Andrew Sullivan without…
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