Religion Dispatches
…le burdens. And there is no way President Obama can get to know and trust any of these reverend gentlemen to this degree of vulnerability now that it’s all out in public. Publicity is the other reason I’m skeptical that this is real. If any of these clergy leaders is actually pastoring our President today, he would surely not want it known, nor would the President himself want it known. Having this relationship made public is unseemly and unworkab…
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…nited Methodist Church. At least one retired bishop was part of that ceremony. Bishop Carcaño did not feel she could participate in the CWAC ordinations in her region. She was involved in discussion about whether a local church could be used for the service and whether local clergy ought to participate. There are differing perceptions about whether she instructed local pastors not to allow the ordination service to be held in local churches. It is…
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…s effects.] What can we do to make it so that the human being can survive any kind of environmental catastrophe? Over the next ten or twenty years, many people are going to become more machine-like. I have a biochip in my hands, my father already has multiple heart [implants], a grandmother has an artificial hip. We are becoming cyborg-like and, when they start coming out with things like robotic hearts and kidneys, there’s no question that we’re…
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…glazed with a threat. Because you know, like I know, that it could happen anywhere: any Wal-Mart, any school. You know, like I know, that the guns and the death are absolutely everywhere, just barely concealed. Maybe this is why you bought that gun, if you’re one of the Americans who did buy that gun. Or all those guns. Maybe you felt like it was the only way you could protect yourself, or anyone else. Maybe you wanted to live with a little less f…
Read More…hem. They loved him; they were terrified of him. The brothers never speak anymore; they talk on the phone at least once a day. It’s all there and it’s all unclear. All we know for a fact is that it all came apart very suddenly. On December 9, 2008, Bernie Madoff told his son, Mark, that he intended to pay out $173 million in holiday bonuses two months early. Deeply concerned, Mark revealed this to Andrew, who concluded that Madoff Securities shoul…
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…erything. So now if I’m trying to open up a bank account, I’m doing a cell phone application, or anything, that statement is there, it has just gone into everything, every aspect of one’s life, it’s there. It’s ridiculous to have that, but nonetheless it’s real. The problems are not just administrative: Ahmadis have a “glass ceiling” in the civil service, and discriminatory use of voter registration lists (Ahmadis are enrolled separately) keeps th…
Read More…hy who could provide a balance to the high male clericalism. I also doubt anyone is telling Christopher Hitchens to tone it down. Besides, it is important to remember that many other Catholics are hurt deeply by this. It’s hard to realize the place you looked to for spiritual solace and intellectual vigor, that taught myself and many individuals how to have a preferential option for the poor and those in need, is being shown through press reports…
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…an alley in downtown Los Angeles, across the street from a bank and a cell phone store and a block away from a Little Tokyo walking mall. But up on a streetlight at the alley’s entrance, a city historical marker is tacked: Azusa St. Mission… Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement. For some, this is sacred ground: the place where the Azusa Street Revival, the founding moment of the modern Pentecostal christian church, made its home in 1906, a…
Read More…stioned about his past affairs. But Cain’s arrogance won’t wash with the many white voters who he believes “can’t pretend” to like him. Cain’s inability to acknowledge his foibles speaks to very deep pathology on his part. His love of the media spotlight may cost him his wife and children, yet he continues to use them as a shield to hide his failings. Ginger White’s claims, backed up with receipts and phone records, are compelling. Besides, who wo…
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…or other sacred ground. They cannot be divided up, shared, or retained in any other way. What business is it of the Catholic Church what anyone does with their own dead body, or with the body of a dead loved one? This question was asked immediately, and repeatedly, in response to news reports on the Vatican document. CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter and others reported on the new teaching, and in the com…
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