Religion Dispatches
…ng of the country.” In 2010, the White House refused to comment on DuBois’ phone call to religious right ideologue David Jeremiah after the latter called the president “a dangerous person” moving the country toward “socialism.” It was obviously an incident the White House would have preferred DuBois just let go. Boorstein’s piece suggests that some critics believe that the office would have performed better had DuBois been more experienced and the…
Read More…ll use the term “mix tape”?) While she’s out and completely unreachable by phone, her dad, Ken, goes into the hospital with breathing difficulties and is admitted to intensive care. Taylor finally gets the message, is stricken with remorse and concern, prays for her dad’s healing, and resolves to be more responsible. My Dinner with Frankie: Mark and Cheryl Perry invited their teenage daughter Olivia’s friend Frankie over for dinner. Since Olivia h…
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…e to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the south, the building of which in the 1940s destroyed most of the last residential buildings via eminent domain. In the 1960s, the building of the World Trade Center took care of much of the rest. The tunnel to the south, the tower to the north, but even in the 1980s, there were still “pockets” of human-scaled buildings dating back to the early 19th century. The 9/11 attacks not only destroyed the World Trade…
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…ngs outlines beautifully in a recent follow up piece, this book, written in 1973 in the wake of the social transformations of the 1960s, forces a question back upon the intellectuals of the black theology project—particularly back upon Dr. James Hal Cone and Dr. Deotis Roberts. Dr. Jones raised what in the history of philosophy and theology has come to be called the “theodicy” question: How do we hold onto God’s goodness in the face of ongoing suf…
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…wers. (To put this in perspective, the series of finale of Breaking Bad had 10.3 million viewers). As AMC’s President Charlie Collier noted at the time, “It is a good day to be dead.” Zombies, an exasperated colleague told me, are everywhere. Indeed, they are, and they are unavoidable: these monsters are a five billion dollar industry. They appear in cell phone ads for Sprint, they chase runners in 5Ks, and they scare crowds at haunted houses and…
Read More…hich show that Monk’s transfer date was moved from September 30th to August 14th. The Liberty Institute believes that, This documentation shows that the commander indeed reassigned Monk in a highly irregular manner immediately after her ultimatum to him regarding his views on same-sex marriage. This is totally consistent with his accusation, and totally at odds with the Air Force’s new official explanation. That’s a lot of intention to read into a…
Read More…I were to do the same thing today, I could be arrested, detained for up to 15 days, deported, and fined 100 thousand rubles (a little more than $3000) to boot. Four Dutch nationals have already been arrested and deported for violating Russia’s ban on so-called “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations,” and all eyes will be on Sochi as we wonder if any similar incidents will occur there. These days, I teach interdisciplinary humanities and…
Read More…ngton, D.C.? SA: My concern about immigration reform started when was 14 or 15 years old and had a job picking watermelons on a farm outside of Phoenix, and I was the only person on the crew who wasn’t undocumented. In southern California, Mormon parents of wayward kids sent their sons to pick pineapples in Hawaii. Were watermelons the Arizona version? [Laughs.] It wasn’t like that. My dad grew up on a farm and wanted me to have the same experie…
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…i responded defiantly: Excellent Minister: You have never called me on the phone before. And you threatened me for a letter I addressed to Pope Francis. After today’s call I warn you that Christian-phobia is a type of religious persecution contrary to the liberty enshrined in our Constitution, which I swore to defend and obey. I reject your threats, even if I am sacrificed like John the Baptist for simply because as an Ambassador [to the Vatican]…
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…and red caps in homage to Mario, the beloved video game character from the 1980s and 1990s. Star Wars characters waited in line to meet Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Princess Leah. In the large autograph arena at Comic Con, a long line stretched across the conference floor for autographs from Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. The fans I spoke to didn’t care that Draco was a “bad guy,” since as an actor he serv…
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