Religion Dispatches
…ssage…It’s for all of us.” Even if some young Catholics come to St. Monica primarily for the dating pool it doesn’t bother Torgerson. “I don’t care why they come,” he says, “I care about how they leave.”…
Read More
…unspoken input as the music followed a tune played by a harp unstrung to a destination sensed intensely yet unknown…. Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada más; caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. Traveler, the only road Is your footsteps, and nothing more; Traveler, there is no road, We make the road by walking. ~ Antonio Machado The Dead sang, plucked, and pounded inexorably onward toward a palpably approaching ecstasy with…
Read More…are more conservative.” Guam: Visitors Bureau Wants To Become Gay Wedding Destination Ken Quintanilla at KUAM reports that 139 marriage licenses and certificates had been issued to same-sex couples as of October 7, and says the Guam Visitors Bureau is looking to market the island as a marriage destination for same-sex couples. United Nations: Anti-Gay Countries Block Mention of LGBT People in New Urban Agenda Belarus, Russia, and more than a doze…
Read More
…I shared what I learned with those standing around me or who didn’t have a phone, compared notes with others about what they knew, and tried to calm some who were scared and close to panic. As far as I could tell, the TSA personnel and other security officials seemed know about as much as the passengers about what was happening—all around me, I sensed a complete failure of nerve. A black woman wearing a security vest crouched outside on the tarmac…
Read More…ccurred to me it would be a very easy to make hajj from there. I bought an airline ticket and was in contact with the family of one of my graduate school friends. They would pick me up from the airport and host me during my stay and the days of ritual. Nice plan. So I went to the embassy to get the visa and was denied because (as an American) I needed proof that I was Muslim. How do I prove I have been a practicing Muslim for a decade? I went to t…
Read More
Dear Mr. Smisek: Delayed flights, telephone customer care wait times, negotiations between United Continental Holdings and its employees: these are among the things with which this letter is not concerned, you may be relieved to know. Perhaps you would agree that in the final analysis, such things are of no concern. No, Mr. Smisek, this message is not the grievance of a disgruntled customer. It is a witness to an abomination. It is a plea for spi…
Read More…ets are about God helping the Japanese, and prayer for the Japanese, but a number of the tweets are weighing in about God either being involved (see also here, and here) or meting out punishment (or refuting this response). Some tweets have also incorporated the Mayan calendar and the purported 2012 “end of the world” to explain the seismic activity. I’ve collected a sample of these below for you to see through Google’s real-time twitter feed. Fro…
Read More
…r heart—but hearts don’t have flagpoles, only the public square does…if we dont fly the appeal to heaven flag,” he said, using a slur for transgender people, “we’ll fly the t****y flag.” Wilson closed with a recommendation that, if he wins the 2024 election, Donald Trump should, on inauguration day: [G]ive explicit glory to the God of heaven, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Only a “Protestant majority” can usher in “restoration” Na…
Read More…All (or Almost All) of It Back and Patience with God: Faith for People Who Dont Like Religion (or Atheism). In the Huffington Post Frank sums up his feelings towards those who claim to be “moderates” seeking “common ground” in an “Open Letter to the ‘Respectable’ Evangelical/Republican Party Leadership”: When have you all—the respectable leaders—stood up and denounced and called out your haters? You the “moderate” evangelical leaders and “respecta…
Read More…ughter Bella was hospitalized.) Organizers said they had distributed 1,800 tickets, and the pews in the church were nearly full, with several hundred, if not nearly a thousand people in attendance. Gingrich was the only candidate to appear; Staver, the “forum’s” moderator took pains to point out that they had invited the other candidates. Santorum and Ron Paul had commitments outside of Florida. Mitt Romney, the candidate Staver and other leaders…
Read More