Religion Dispatches
…uch my times spent in Southeast Asia. Somebody has to love the heat and humidity, right? So when Ramadan comes, I have this awful experience: all my consumptions, all that I take for nourishment of mind, body and soul, must be done in the dark. That’s hard for me. Like many seasonal affective folks I also go to bed early and get up early, usually. This too is tipped on its head with Ramadan. By the time I settle in after my mosque visit, it’s way…
Read MoreI feel like writing about something this beautiful August morning that has nothing to do with Park51 or the Discovery Institute or the First Amendment or creationism. Rather, I’d like to take a break from these never-ending topics by changing the subject to something perhaps a little less weighty, unless of course, you’re a frog. For today, I’d like to garner feedback from readers about the role of man’s dominion and whether it’s right to play Go…
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…t this, but as it stands, I have three different prayer time schedules: my iphone has one from the Ipray app; and I printed one off line from Islamicity; then collected one from my favorite mosque, when I went there for the tarawih prayer the night proceeding the first day of fasting. None of them have the same time on it. I therefore create a buffer to offset any slight disagreement a few minutes in the morning and a few at sunset. The rest I lea…
Read More…nfess, I am beginning to wax a little melancholy as the ending of this auspicious month approaches. Today, I returned to my solitary suhur, then walked beneath the canopy of trees toward the mosque for morning prayer and muraqabah, or meditation. The stars were still shining like brilliant diamonds in the deep dark sky. I did search for a glimpse of the moon, so I could check our progress toward the final day, but alas, he was not visible between…
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…sday he saw more than twice the usual number of patients at his abortion clinic, Aid For Women, in Kansas City, Kansas. But then, this has been an unusual few weeks. Since mid-June, Dr. Yeomans (and the other abortion providers in Kansas) have found themselves scrambling to see as many patients as possible before today; as of July 1, these facilities will not be able to offer abortion services until they show compliance with new regulations hande…
Read More…ville Interfaith Forum’s Gathering for Peace, Understanding, and Hope at Trinity United Methodist Church. Pastor of Trinity UMC, Dan Johnson, told RD that they had expected as many as 3,000 people, though given ongoing developments he suspects that might change. Planned as something of a counter-demonstration to the planned-and-now-canceled Qur’an burning “antics” over at Dove Outreach, the event will feature prayer and bread breaking, with bread…
Read MoreIn an email alert sent out yesterday, Faith and Freedom Coalition executive director Gary Marx notified supporters that a team of Wisconsin volunteers will be canvassing the state, in preparation for “a full-scale get-out-the-vote phone bank operation to make sure every last pro-freedom and pro-family voter goes to vote on behalf of our values.” So far, the right’s anti-union battleground in Wisconsin hasn’t been explicitly framed as a “pro-famil…
Read More…ks your quest to Pascal’s wager and the context of your quest in today’s spiritual marketplace? Linn Marie Tonstad suggests that I am participating in a postmodern marketplace of religious ideas, choosing my “beliefs” from a smorgasbord of options. But then in the last sentence she seems to suggest that there might be a “marketplace” motive to my actions—that I might stand to benefit in the marketplace from my yearlong experience of atheism. First…
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…Zone. Three yellow school buses were idling at the entrance of the Jacob Riis House, public housing near the river, to transport residents to emergency shelters. There were only a few hours left but I didn’t see many people getting on. I asked a woman with the leathery face of a smoker who was walking her small dog in the already strong wind outside the building what she was planning to do. “I’m not going,” she said without a trace of hesitation….
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I knew something horrific had happened just from my friend Lisa’s email: “R U watching the news?” When you report on violence, when your family has been pierced by violence, people assume you are interested in violence. And you are. Very. Like cancer victims are very interested in CAT scans. Maybe it’s inchoate coping, maybe it’s autonomic rubbernecking, but the first thing you always need to know is how someone learned that life as she or he kne…
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