Religion Dispatches
…with Ramadan. By the time I settle in after my mosque visit, it’s way past 11 and then I’m up by 4. It’s true with no work schedule I have the luxury of going back to sleep after reading Qur’an in the morning, but that is actually my favorite time of day to be awake and productive. I used to say, if I see that sun come over the horizon, I know the day is going to be good. Simple things like the sun or the absence of it, remind me then to be grate…
Read More…at cross purposes. My first thought was to kick myself for leaving my cell phone behind. This would have made a terrific picture. My second thought was to find a less obtrusive spot where I could watch to see how this excruciatingly slow drama would play out. But before I could move, my husband drifted up behind me in his kayak, took one look at the frog and snake and muttered, “I can’t take this.” Over my objections (“But it’s nature!”) Jeff stre…
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…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 leav…
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…g days at work. On Wednesday and Thursday 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…
Read More…mportance to me for two reasons. 1) last year I had a serious accident with 12 stitches over my right eye. I lost consciousness, and that has never happened to me before. One minute I saw the motorbike coming at me and knew I would be hit, and the next minute some one was helping me to the curb. I thought then, well, at least I did regain consciousness. Because, just as quickly, I might not have. It could have been fatal and I really thought about…
Read More…down with the two Mormon candidates in the 2012 race, this is what I’d ask: 1. In 2008, LDS Church leaders solicited $25,000 donations from wealthy Church members for California’s “Yes on 8” anti-marriage-equality campaign. High-ranking Church leaders even scheduled phone calls with individual members to make the ask in person. Did Church leaders solicit an individual contribution from you to the Yes on 8 campaign or any other anti-marriage-equal…
Read More…’t follow, and in fact I hadn’t thought much about it for at least the last 15 years of my ministry. But the average Adventist will say that heaven will not be filled with just Adventists—but the doctrine remains that if you don’t adhere to Adventists teachings, you may not be saved. I dealt with this theology by just not preaching on it. You describe yourself on your website is an activist. How do you define this term? In addition to marriage equ…
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…Rev. Gary LaMoine of Assumption Church in Barnesville, Minnesota to prevent 17-year-old Lennon Cihak from receiving the sacrament of confirmation, a rite of passage usually administered to Catholic teenagers to “perfect the work of baptism” (the first of the sacraments, in Roman Catholic teaching) and mark their maturity as Catholic Christians. Likewise, the boy’s family members have been prevented from receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion at…
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…zation, he names the Ottoman Empire, which was the “Islamic Caliphate” from 1517 to 1923; reading this, two things happened. First, I laughed out loud. Second, many of my fellow Barnes and Noble customers looked at me uncomfortably. To #1: I’d laughed because Richardson called the Ottoman Empire an Arabizing agent. To #2: People looked at me with alarm because they wondered: why would this brown man in Arabizing scarf, reading this book about th…
Read More…as even better than it was in 2008 and that there was hardcore focus on the 18- to 29-year-old set. And, mind you, I’m no professional. Which is why I must take issue with Kranish’s unironic characterization of Romney as a “data-driven analyst.” Unless by “data-driven analyst” he means is a guy who knows how to arrange numbers on a page to make a case just plausible enough secure buy-in from a cultivated crew of underwriters and investors who are…
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