Search for "Delta Airlines 1800-299-7264 Customer Service Center"

Five Must-Reads on the “Nones”: A Tipping Point in American Religion and Spirituality

By Elizabeth Drescher

…(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010). Esalen Institute, a retreat center formed in 1962 near Big Sur, California, is at once on the margins and at the center of late modern American spirituality. Early spiritual experimentation at Esalen popularized practices such as yoga, meditation, reiki, and past-life regression, and the success of Esalen encouraged invited the development of retreat centers of myriad spiritual and traditional religio…

His Holiness, Inc.: The Dalai Lama as a Spiritual Mega-Brand

By Elizabeth Drescher

…. To wit: a housecleaning staff member (“they’re now called ‘environmental services,’” Dean explained) eased the burden of a woman recovering from cancer-related surgery by sharing her own story of recovery from the disease. See: there ya go! Bam! Compassion! So, okay, in terms of deeply meaningful content, well, there didn’t seem to be much there, there, which left many in the media struggling for an angle. Likewise, Riley McShane, an SCU freshma…

Black Masses Continue to Titillate Conservative Catholics

By Joseph Laycock

…sked if there had been a pushback to Daniels’ previous three events, Civic Center general manager Jim Brown answered, “We’ve had none.” However, Daniels’ latest announcement to hold a black mass at the Civic Center on September 21 has generated unprecedented attention. Mayor Mick Cornett has already received 450 emails and phone calls opposing the event. Archbishop Paul Coakley has also condemned the event and called on Catholics to protest if it…

“Future of Babylon” Project Preserves History to Some, Ushers in “End Times” to Others

By Bill Berkowitz

…rpretation, ‘the city of Babylon will be rebuilt and become the commercial center of the world’ and the center of the Antichrist’s kingdom: “Ever since the days of Nimrod, human beings have tried to rule the world. To do so they must control the economy. During the Tribulation Antichrist will rule the world, not only by an army but also by controlling commerce. People will not be able to buy or sell without his permission except on the blackmarket…

Seeing What They Wanna See: Religion Surveys Reflect Surveyors

By Nathan Schneider

…ount for its high rate of “nones.” While, indeed, Kosmin and Keysar lead a center dedicated to the study of the non-religious—the only one of its kind in American academia—they take pains to protect their survey from sectarian bias of its own. They conduct it in conjunction with the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, located down the hall from them at Trinity College. In addition to the funding they receive from Switzerland…

Santorum and the New Catholic-Evangelical Alliance

By Sarah Posner

…m the piece: Since returning to Washington to run the Catholic Information Center for Opus Dei, McCloskey has taken his mission onto Meet the Press and to CNN. He’s preached it in USA Today and inThe New York Times. More famously, he has brought into Catholicism several members of the conservative elite. McCloskey personally baptized Judge Robert Bork, political pundits Robert Novak and Lawrence Kudlow, publisher Alfred Regnery, financier Lewis Le…

An Amicus Brief in Support of Gay Marriage—From Utah?

By Joanna Brooks

…23 states to shape the national discussion on these issues. The Utah Pride Center wanted to tell the story of what it’s like to be gay in Utah and live under a system we describe as “de jure denigration,” but we also wanted to take it a step further so that it could speak for other states and regions with similar laws. We want the court to view it in relationship to the segregation that occurred in the South. From a legal perspective, there are si…

Obama Foe Wants His MTV

By Bill Berkowitz

…US boundary with Mexico.” The ad showed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and claimed that “illegal immigration from Mexico provides easy cover for terrorists,” FactCheck.org reported. Let Freedom Ring spent $100,000 on air time for the ad which was seen nationally on CNN and Fox News. In 2001, Hanna also gained some national attention by refusing to remove a plaque of the Ten Commandments from the county courthouse, while he was a member…

Stupak Forming Fault Lines in Left-Leaning Faith Groups?

By Sarah Posner

…d comparison of the Capps and Stupak amendments, read this analysis by the Center for American Progress’ Jessica Arons.) Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (which strongly opposes the Stupak amendment), said his understanding was that a condition of participating in that teleconference was agreeing that Capps was a compromise that everyone could live with. The overall tenor of the Faith fo…

Brexit Boosters: Why the Religious Right Hates the European Union

By Peter Montgomery

…ng the equality of men and women, which the Russian Orthodox Church’s news service called “a serious attempt to exert political pressure on European countries with the aim to destroy the traditional notions of marriage and family and to legalize surrogate motherhood and abortion.” Hildingsson decried those who she said seek to “use the European Union as a lever for exerting pressure on Central and Eastern Europe whose people seek to preserve the a…