Religion Dispatches
…Aqua-Buddha college pranks notwithstanding, Rand Paul embraces Buddhist notions of the interconnectedness of everything and the illusion of difference; “nothingness” is The Word. Thanks to my colleague Jon for sharing. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word – Nothingness www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive…
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…his conversation should be had openly. I believe clarity is a reasonable request. I imagine you are under a lot of pressure, and, just like the rest of us, you have your own set of questions and ideas about church, God and faith. I also know that as a pastor, if you happen to hold views that deviate from the evangelical script, you can find yourself at odds with the system that employs you and provides your platform. However, creating and enforcin…
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…who claim a Christian identity than those who say they are Muslims. Three-quarters (75%) of Americans say that self-identified Christians who commit acts of violence in the name of Christianity are not really Christian. In contrast, only half (50%) say that self-proclaimed Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are not really Muslim. Thirty-seven percent say these perpetrators really are Muslim, while 13% offer no opinion. For m…
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…—we didn’t have the numbers. White clergy did not respond to this. https://www.facebook.com/publictheologian/photos/a.832371280191875.1073741829.832236016872068/1364676620294669/?type=3&theater What does that feel like for you, as a trans queer Latinx, who is also public theologian and activist working in these spheres? What does that absence from white clergy signal to you and others who hold intersectional identities? It makes me think that whit…
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…earings, Rep. King has maintained without evidence that 80% of American mosques are run by radical imams, a claim also made by Emerson and others. By arguing that it’s the mosques that are radical, not most American Muslims, these conspiracy theorists use a sleight of hand that enables them to defend themselves against charges that they are wrongly smearing all American Muslims with a broad brush. It’s not the American Muslims themselves who are r…
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…f compassion or empathy.” https://www.instagram.com/p/CBA1P3gHpT_/?igshid=1qstwzxn87p2n I’m a pastor in the city that Drew Brees calls home and it’s from this perspective that I say Drew Brees’ comments were right. His comments were right not only because he spoke from his heart but because his comments, especially given the fact that they were made in the midst of everything that’s going on in our country, reveal what most white people believe in…
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…rated in his recounting of the Mystic Massacre of 1637 where roughly 700 Pequot Indians were burned alive: “Men as the Pequots, whom the First Planters of New-England found in the Wilderness. …These Ammonites perceived that they had made themselves to sink before the New-English Israel… Five or Six Hundred of these Barbarians were dismissed from a World that was Burdened with them.” This mythology of divine conquest is built into the American imag…
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…et me confess: I even wear Birkenstocks. Shannon. Deadshow, Deadhead. Dominquez Hills, 1990. Photo by ChasM3/https://www.flickr.com/photos/chasm3/ “Sugar Magnolia,” however, still presents a challenge. Written by Robert Hunter and the band’s rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, its lyrics would raise the hackles of even the mildest of feminists. The subject of the song not only takes the wheel for a stoned driver but “pays my ticket when I speed.” “She don’…
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…, with the attendant patriarchal implications (pun unavoidable). But other questions remain, like what if anything it means if I, as a woman, play as Abraham and direct the conquest of Canaan? Also, what will players as patriarchs be able to do and not do? For example, will the game present us with the choice of whether or not to begin the sacrifice if Isaac, or present us with options in other theologically loaded events? Will the chat feature en…
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…t the mosques, the standard stuff—the stories that kept coming up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJQr1Go9ldw&t=2s You work as an actor, a writer, a comedian, in a lot of creative spaces. What’s the line between free speech and bigotry? Wow. What is the line between free speech and bigotry? Look, there’s always going to be free speech, and it’s a fundamental right. We are allowed to speak our minds. But bigotry will always exist—there will always…
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