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…
Read More…slogans about immigration reform. On line I heard that parishes with large numbers of undocumented immigrants had received many tickets. No outside food or water, statues, gifts or selfie sticks were permitted. Despite 10,000 folding chairs, most of us would have no choice but to stand. Once in my appointed place behind the last row of seats, I found myself in a community of fellow pilgrims, lottery winners from local parishes, nearby colleges, an…
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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…
Read More…of Catholics, Equally Blessed, is calling on the Church and the Knights of Columbus to sever ties with the organization. NOM’s anti-gay-marriage “Not a Civil Right” project included a plan to “to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key Democratic constituencies.” The document made clear a plan to target Latinos as well, to “interrupt the process of assimilation” to pro-gay values and make “support for marriage a key badge of Latino identit…
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…age. His 2012 book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar, has sold widely. Over the phone, I asked Rinzler why he and Burrows had chosen to establish the studio as a for-profit company. “We really wanted to make sure we had all the resources we need for supporting people who are trying meditation for the first time,” Rinzler explained. Because they’re a business, there’s more professionalism. The teachers they’ve hired show up on time, and, as Rinzler put…
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…affair with Israel is nothing new. In June of this year, she told a large Norfolk, Virginia audience that Obama’s criticism of the raid on the Gaza Flotilla, in which nine activists were killed, “sold out our ally Israel.” Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s largest circulation daily, reported in a mid-November article titled “Yay Sarah!,” that the former governor is planning a trip to Israel. In that article Orly Azulai, the Yediot reporter, was impress…
Read More…ures, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, still maintains his position at the Norfolk, Virginia college, pending an investigation. The commanders, lieutenant colonels, captains and colonels who sat in Dooley’s classroom, listening to the inflammatory material week after week, have now moved into higher-level assignments throughout the U.S. military. For the better part of the last decade, a small cabal of self-anointed counterterrorism experts has be…
Read More…ru earlier this month. The Washington Blade’s Michael Lavers interviewed a number of Caribbean LGBT advocates who agreed that “the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in their region continues to lag far behind that in Latin America,” partly because there has been a longer experience of independence in Latin American countries. Erin Greene, director of advocacy for SASH Bahamas, told the Blade that conservative religious bel…
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…er, and then they became “personal,” and then they fit in our pockets as a phone. “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” at the Computer History Museum In this telling, the internet was not a unique “Columbus” event, but an evolution dependent on the shrinking size and growing capacity of computers. Walking through the Computer History Museum it’s not likely that religious concepts will press to the front of your mind. The marvel is in t…
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…ans would be attracted to, appreciate and consider careers in science (the number is decreasing annually). I bet we’d have more productive conversation among students and leaders of science and religion around the many profound issues in our nation that engage both: abortion, medical care, stem cells, homosexuality, and genomic research. The battle rhetoric would fade and, more than likely, movies like Expelled wouldn’t be made in the first place….
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