Religion Dispatches
…ist that building floors are very porous membranes indeed. The money, like the guilt, flows freely. The mystery deepens in the case of a man like Bernie Madoff, because he so mysteriously found a way to have it both ways. The offices on the 19th floor were transparent. They were walls of glass. But Bernie Madoff designed them with a special feature: he could hit a button, and the glass would miraculously turn white, like a wall. “Now you see it, n…
Read MoreI just got off the phone with Nancy Ratzen, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, who said the group would be issuing an endorsement of Elana Kagan later today. Ratzen, who said the NCJW has, since 2001, “engaged consistently on reviewing and taking positions and educating and mobilizing progressive Jewish community” on judicial nominations, said that the group would be working hard to see Kagan confirmed. “We think she has an except…
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…to atheism than its more dismissive predecessors. RD spoke with Maguire by phone about his latest book and the future of belief. What was the impetus for undertaking this after a long career as a priest and theologian who was once a believer? I started out as the absolute true believer. I believed everything the Vatican taught. One of the things that helped me was working in a parish. I started to meet real people and to discover that some of the…
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…l and an intense season of transparency, reflection and restoration.” Also last month, Auburn University hired Hugh Freeze as head coach of its football program. In 2017 the University of Mississippi forced Freeze to resign as head coach after discovering he’d been using his school-issued cell phone to call an escort service. Freeze was hired the following year by Liberty University, where he coached until he left for Auburn, just weeks after the…
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…was offended and let the email sender know. It led to a rich and powerful phone conversation later that day where we both came to an agreement that, if followed logically, the examples tell a story of a God who is either capricious or lacking in any real power. If God can put small delays in the path of a few people headed for the Twin Towers that day, why not do that to all of them? If God has the power to save some, why not save all? Why not pe…
Read More…Jewish heritage of my wife of 38 years,” he wrote in an email. Later in a phone interview, he said his wife was not a practicing Jew but “ethnically Jewish” because her maternal grandmother was a Jew. Of course, it is possible to express [insert flavor of bigotry here] even if you have friends, relatives, partners, or a spouse who identify as part of [group that is the target of that bigotry]. It’s a close cousin to the “some of my best friends a…
Read More…c to punch up the storyline as the anti-Mormon flare-ups we witnessed late last summer and fall. In fact, while evangelical Christians continue to opt for Santorum as the not-Romney, there is little solid data that isolates anti-Mormonism as the cause: region, social conservatism, and economic class also drive the narrative. As the race moves past Super Tuesday, the real story is the grind that the 2012 race is becoming. Its dispiriting effects on…
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…tacks are intended to create enough dissension among the colony’s working class that it forces the state to finally back down. This was the explicit intention of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) as the Troubles began in the 1970s. Killing and bombings, including against civilians or through grievous sectarian attacks, were chosen to render Britain’s control of Northern Ireland untenable. Given Israel’s history it’s unlikely that the cou…
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…rk Film Festival, along with about 700 other attendees. I wish I had their phone numbers; even the disgusted dozens who walked out halfway through. I’d like to call them at 3:00 a.m. and ask what they are thinking about, what they are dreaming, if indeed they are sleeping. I need some therapy. This is one messed-up film. The beauty of Antichrist is in distinct contrast to many of von Trier’s previous films. From the early 1990s until now, his film…
Read More…, on the other hand, could well give Democrats a huge advantage. Here’s a classic example of giving the right advice for the wrong reason. Though public optimism about the war is indeed rising, most of the recent polls still show a majority saying that the United States is not getting closer to success. The poll Krugman cites is atypical. Moreover, it’s not at all clear that the economy is the public’s biggest concern. If you add issues like terro…
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