Religion Dispatches
…s Baldwin, whose thought and influence are still very much alive. Although best remembered for his novels and incisive cultural criticism, Baldwin spent several years as a teenage preacher in the historic Black wing of evangelicalism. Eventually deconverted by everything from Dostoevsky to the hypocrisy of other ministers, he would end up balancing distance from any church with affirmation of his essential belief in love, punctuating it all with c…
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…r jobs isn’t an anomaly in the US; many healthcare facilities that provide best-practice medical care for trans people have seen a rise in violent threats. This hate campaign has largely been driven by the far-right “Libs of TikTok,” whose Facebook and Twitter accounts were temporarily suspended recently due to their online conduct. The account, according to the Washington Post, has even had an influence on legislation. According to Media Matters…
Read More…gives lie to that myth. It was under Muslim control for centuries, and at best is currently 10% Muslim. Even if Pakistan and Bangladesh are counted as part of larger South Asia, only 1/3 of the population is Muslim, spread through the north, the center, and the south. There is no universally recognized command to convert and/or kill. 3. Muslims do not condemn terrorism. Part of moving beyond this simplistic idea of Muslims is to move beyond simpl…
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…am most proud was when I graduated from University College in 1987 as the best male athlete. As I tell my students at LMU, I don’t look like much now, being old and slow and fat, but I used to be somebody. When I moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1997 to start teaching at Cal State Northridge, I sought out Coach Wooden. That was another of the amazing things about him. He was approachable, answering his own phone and mail, meeting with complete…
Read More…on his self-made man biography rather than individual human rights as the best way to achieve equality.” In early February, the U.S. Ambassador hosted a gathering of activists to brainstorm strategies to combat the possible anti-LGBTI propaganda law that could reach Parliament next year. Also in early February, Randy Berry, the U.S. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons held a series of low-profile meetings in Jakarta. While high-le…
Read More…long as those needs get the response they deserve. As it happens, even the best of leaders blow it once in a while. The trick is to recover as best you can, while maintaining the human connection. Politicians don’t have to be Jesus, but if you can’t occasionally set the prepared speech aside and invite people to share their suffering, then as a candidate you’re not worth a bucket of warm piss, to use John Nance Garner’s colorful expression. In tha…
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…that Lincoln was, first and last, a cutthroat pol who could spin with the best of them. The most egregious sinners on this score, Wilentz writes, are the literary scholars who seek an aesthetic Lincoln, a philosopher-king of ideological purity. Since they can’t read history properly, these wordhounds proceed to make a series of fallacious judgments, often deeming Lincoln wanting in comparison to more doctrinaire abolitionists. If you think Henry…
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…y and judgment, the impossibility of redress or appeal, “bitter pain.” The best the woman accused of adultery can hope for is that it doesn’t happen again. Of course there’s no guarantee. In fact, although abortion is prescribed, rather than prohibited, in the text, the larger framework is the same—she has no control over her own body. What Numbers 5 is not is a gleeful “gotcha” moment for confronting the Christian Right by showing the Bible reall…
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…hile Lewis’s case is popular because of its accessibility, it’s hardly the best version of this kind of argument. Robert Adams’ Finite and Infinite Goods is far more powerful. But given Lewis’s accessible approach, it makes sense that Collins would be both familiar with it and prone to invoke it in popular lectures. This line of argument is, obviously, controversial. It relies on the premise that there are standards of moral truth that hold regard…
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…king over our entertainment industry, you’ve appeared in some of America’s best-loved shows. You are even versatile enough to play brown, Muslim, American terrorists. But don’t you find your role in this most recent ad from Lowe’s truly objectionable? Here you are destroying the world’s natural resources to drive around town, and turn on an obscene number of lights. Doesn’t this offend your morality? Or do you truly have no shame? PC: Riz gets to…
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