Religion Dispatches
…nding clients for lap dances, but still must make money to support her nine-year-old child. (Slyly, A.O. Scott’s New York Times review ends with a note on its “R” rating since, “It has fake bloodshed and real nudity”: This difference is crucial.) Cassidy and Randy each work double lives, between their bodies as commodities and their bodies that have to pay the rent and support their children. Somewhere in all the meat are identities, struggling fo…
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…lidates your prediction that there will be more religious switching within Western culture from Christianity to non-affiliation. But the percentage of unaffiliated believers will actually go down as a percentage of the global population. But of course that’s a projection, and it’s based on the analysis of trends that are seen today. My suspicion is that they are underestimating the importance of this new transparency. It takes twenty years to grow…
Read More…as high as your ears, with palms toward the black stone, and recite “bismi-Lah, Allahu Akbar laa ilaha illa-Allah.” Then raise your right hand as if in greeting and bring it back to kiss. If you are close enough to the stone, you’re supposed to kiss it. If you cannot kiss it, you should touch it with the right hand; if not, then just wave and kiss the hand. People also will touch it with an item of clothing and then kiss that, if they are close e…
Read More…information. Does he know when they’re not deceiving us? Does he have a lie-dar? Can he ship American jobs overseas, build it for cheap somewhere else thanks to a trade agreement whose name shall not be spoken, sell that lie-dar back to us at bargain prices and use his profits to build a Super PAC to make sure you, I, and everyone here, are focused not on wage gaps but Iranian liars? For lie they do. But how much? When crowds gather to chant ‘Deat…
Read More…couples with equal family protection to the couple and children,” reads the 150-page report, according to Pant. Another recommendation urges Nepalese lawmakers to “make necessary changes” to address discriminatory criminal and civil laws. “Make the family law inclusive to protect the family members who are sexual and gender minorities as the heterosexual family members are protected,” it reads, according to Pant…. Media reports indicate the commit…
Read More…th respect and hope at its heart. What about forgiveness? It can be such a cheap word. It is obnoxious the way so many people tell other people they need to forgive the wrong done to them. Often those of us who advocate forgiveness don’t know what we are talking about. Then again, there is really no end to the suffering if we can’t forgive. There is no end game. We become hateful, the way our wrongdoers were hateful, and the victory goes to the te…
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…the way, Jesus always said that the real sin is self-righteousness. The not-so-funny thing about sin is that when you keep on sinning, real people get really hurt. When you stop sinning, repent, and are forgiven for what you have done and don’t keep on doing what you did, often real people are blessed. Isn’t That a Kind of “Amnesty”? Can We Get Consensus on That? The rest of my reflections are on amnesty—what my religious perspective tells me is a…
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…an) citizen stepped on the shores of Africa and the Americas and other soon-to-be-colonized places and said, “God has given this land and these people to me. This is mine.” The belief in God-given possession flows like a vampire virus through the veins of this country. We eagerly draw lifeblood from as much of the world as possible, in land, natural resources, and cheap labor. What does it mean to be born in a place that measures your value, your…
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…mpact here. Waves of immigration, especially from countries conquered under 19th-century colonialism, have swept across Europe. With foreigners expected to become a majority in several of their cities, Europeans are undergoing a wrenching cultural soul-search. Doomsayers warn of the advent of Eurabia and the imminent demise of European culture. In the United States, meanwhile, a controversial immigration law granting law enforcement officers wider…
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…iod in which they have lost both the demographic and cultural battles over American public life. The Times story offers little information on Seid, the owner of Tripp Lite, a company that produces surge protectors. At age 90, he’s kept an intentionally low profile, even as he’s been widely known in Republican circles as a major donor to conservative causes. According to a recent ProPublica report, Seid donated a minimum of $775 million between 199…
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