Religion Dispatches
…n the car; he asleep, and me trying to write a blog on my iPad. Let the record show, I was not successful, despite my best intentions. I managed to drop that daughter off just in time to head to Oakland as I had told my middle daughter I would. She needed assistance with the baby because her Canadian in-laws gave her a car, which had to be cleared at customs before local registration. Then we went to the farmers’ market, the flea markets, and the…
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…phasized his navy service, and his diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder, calling him a “peaceful guy.” After sentencing, in a video of him speaking from prison on the phone, Angeli renounced his lawyer and his mitigation plea of mental illness. The story he tells now is that he’s not crazy but acting on the invitation of President Trump. In preparation to appeal his sentence, he’s hired new attorneys from the NCLU, the Proud Boys’ version…
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…at, and I apologize for being part of such a mean gesture. In fact I had a phone conversation with a prominent American imam last night—in Islam, we say subhanallah at such coincidences—and he mentioned in passing how offended many white American Muslims were by this very kind of gesture. On reflection, I can see why. I don’t find racial insensitivity humorous directed at me. The least I can do is not support it. And the least I can do is the leas…
Read More…l, where we kids would serve as runners, hustling pledge cards between the phone banks and the clerks in the service of CJP’s massive fundraising operation. And my mother was always going off to some BJE meeting or another, which I knew had something to do with the ethno-religious education we were receiving, whether in parochial school or at the synagogue. It’s only later on in life that people, if they take an interest, begin to comprehend the n…
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…itian people.” Clinton does not realize that her comments would strike a chord with many Haitians today. Haitian Pentecostals, with their biblical literalism and their certainty that the second coming of Jesus is imminent, could see this time of tribulation as a challenge where the faithful will be rewarded on judgment day. Religion will surely play a role in the manner in which Haitians make sense of this tragedy, and I suspect we will find growi…
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…or in 2023 that “people with homosexual tendencies are children of God,” a number of LGBTQ Catholics and advocates, myself included, got excited for a day or two—maybe even called our parents (if the Church hasn’t driven a wedge between them and us). But then the news cycle passes and, with each expression of anti-LGBTQ Catholic doctrine on diocesan and global levels, these small victories are tarnished with sadness and frustration. This is not to…
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…a is not like the West. Gender issues are not important,” he said. (The recording of the phone call can be heard at the end of the documentary Life in the Shadows: Silent Suffering in Myanmar’s LGBT+ Community.) Win Htein has become well known among foreign journalists in Burma for his cantankerous dismissal of questions about the country’s persecuted Muslims, but at least he has enough respect for the gravity of that issue not to find it hilariou…
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…“Authority is granted to people who are perceived as authoring their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts.” This very well could mean that the Bible Christians thought was more or less fixed in canonical form in the fourth century could once again be in play. It’s hard to know what it might mean for the practice of faith or the shape of the Church in the future wh…
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…here is yet and still more light and truth to break forth from God’s holy word.” We see it in the words of the 19th century abolitionist poet, James Russell Lowell, who wrote in his landmark poem “The Present Crisis:” “Time makes ancient good uncouth; we must onward still and upwards who would keep abreast of truth.” And we certainly see that spirit carried through today—for example, when we revitalized ourselves a decade ago in our God is Still S…
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…dystopian critique of a culture that treats violence as entertainment. In order to make the social commentary enticing, the series entertains moviegoers with…violence. Is this a sly meta-critique? Maybe. Either way, it’s a rare blend: an action-adventure film that suddenly pivots to deal with the consequences of its carnage. “The conjunction that you describe is pretty unusual in adventure films,” said Stephen Prince, a film studies scholar at Vi…
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