Religion Dispatches
…re “politically incorrect”—were it to read: Democratic legislatures in the South [instead of just “Southerners”] established whites-only voting in party primaries. Because he says very little about contemporary Democrats, it’s clear that Barton’s purpose is to connect them with the racist Southern Democrats, while completely ignoring the relationship of contemporary Republicans with the racist South. Most glaringly, the Republican “Southern strate…
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…m preaching on account of her gender. She connects apartheid in her native South Africa with this apartheid at the altar. Alta Jacko draws on Sojourner Truth as part of her inspiration to become what she was forbidden to be by a patriarchal Church. Victoria Rue laughingly tells about distributing Necco Wafers to the children in her neighborhood when they played Mass. There is a lot of footage of ordination ceremonies with women in colorful vestmen…
Read More…its second mass wedding of the year. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon married 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples. The end of the world might be farther off than once expected, at least according to the Mayan calendar. From Qumran to dot-com: the Israel Antiques Authority and Google are working together to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them available to the public. Finally, did the Berenstain Bears become practicing Christians? *This post has b…
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…mber 2007, for example, saw lengthy consultations on AIDS/HIV and Islam in South Africa sponsored by Islamic Relief International. The Sangha Metta Project brings Buddhist monks together to work on both prevention and care. And President-elect Barack Obama said in a 2006 speech to the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, sponsored by evangelical Christian Rick Warren, that “Corinthians says that we are all of one spirit, and that ‘if one part suf…
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…mber 2007, for example, saw lengthy consultations on AIDS/HIV and Islam in South Africa sponsored by Islamic Relief International. The Sahgha Metta project brings Buddhist monks together to work on both prevention and care. And President-elect Barack Obama said in a 2006 speech to the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church sponsored by evangelical Christian Rick Warren that “Corinthians says that we are all of one spirit, and that “if one part suffe…
Read More…ave historical and cultural links respectively, as well as West Africa and South Asia. These aren’t just ordinary organizations, either. There are TV stations, in several languages, private schools, journals and magazines, dialogue projects, and literary festivals. I met young Albanians and Macedonians studying Islamic sciences, between themselves fluent in Albanian, Turkish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and English; they’re in Istanbul for gene…
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…. In the third and thus far bloodiest of the revolts sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East, giant Libya, a nation the size of Alaska with fewer people than New York City (6.3 million), is savaged by violence. The country is split in two, though some army units continue to pummel peaceful protesters while foreign mercenaries fire live ammunition at anyone who moves. In the chaos, which began in mid-February, the rebellious east has liber…
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…in the world. However, the benefits of a frank reckoning with the past, so valuable in other post-conflict settings, exemplified by South Africa, surely apply here as well….
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…what needs to be done. Similarly, he is so fiercely antigay, and supports African political and religious leaders who advocate criminalization of homosexuality, that it is difficult to imagine that the HIV/AIDS work for which he receives such plaudits can ever be successful as gay people are driven underground due to an atmosphere of persecution and fear—and out of reach of programs that might help. As for how he fits in the wider constellation o…
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…ng the topic with former Mormons from England, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa, the rupture can be harrowing even for people who have never set foot in Utah and are one of only a handful of Latter-day Saints in their community. In The Drowned and the Saved, Primo Levi states, “Changing moral codes is always costly; all heretics, apostates, and dissidents know this.” Mormons who leave the church face dire consequences: damnation, separation for…
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