Religion Dispatches
…to pray our two, and to be safe from a stampede of hajjis, we needed to be further out. Fortunately, we were still close and yet safe. We also took turns, such that one of us stood guard over the other—double safe. Anyway, I really got used to the necessity of the jostle and the necessity of the inconvenience. But still, I would draw the line: jostle there, but not in the shops to buy cheap token souvenirs made in China….
Read More…o doesn’t love skinks? 6. Willpower! Is magical! 7. Find an accountability partner! Every time you are tempted to sexually harass a stranger, call your partner and make a confession. 8. Wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it every time you think about harassing a woman! Rubber bands are cheap – mere cents. Why, you could snap yourself with a rubber band more-or-less constantly for the next year, for a fraction of what any of those fancyp…
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…the radical right-wing revolutionaries of the 1990s Patriot movement than anything you might actually describe as conservative in the traditional sense. I do think that a number of conservatives are starting to wake up to this reality now. David Brooks and Joe Scarborough and Lindsey Graham have just recently fired salvos across the decks of the right-wing talkers, criticizing them for where they’re dragging the Republican Party. But unfortunately…
Read More…l by now), Gustavo Gutierrez, Marcus Borg, James Cone, Sallie McFague, or any number of other thinkers and theologians that Douthat does not recognize. The only people who want to bring back Niebuhr are conservatives. (I’m an admitted fanboy, but that’s about coming from the same church background as Niebuhr as much as anything.) And that doesn’t even get to the worst of it. Douthat misunderstands Francis’ amazing, charismatic realignment of Catho…
Read More…the walk—standing up for his son, same sex marriage, and his deeply held beliefs. That is the mark of a person of the year. While I like Pope Francis as much as anyone, I need concrete actions to back up the sentiments. Until the dogma changes, talk is cheap….
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…artwork (including the creation of our own self) be wholly original, we deny a connection with tradition and with other people. The irony of the “myth of the individual” is that once we collectively agree to the story, we are no longer really the individuals we thought we were, our cultural products not as original as we imagined them. Tradition is not an unchanging static movement, but a record of a series of changes; and the individual is an am…
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…en who put out without men having to put a ring on it, there is no longer any reason for people to form lasting relationships. Regnerus allows as how women in the past might have had to “enter marriages for financial reasons” rather than for love, but his rosy view of the past assures him that even then, “many nonfinancial benefits followed, including the formation of a stable, intimate relationship with a spouse and the sense of purpose that come…
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…passing reference to capitalist skepticism but mostly focuses on the company’s methods for ensuring that a specific type of religious undertone exists throughout company policy. Almost exclusively focusing on Christian workplaces, Lambert does mention the New York City diamond merchants several times, the notable bourse run by Hasidic Jews, and briefly explores the culture of the Diamond Dealers Club, which is overwhelmingly Jewish—from ethos to…
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…est amount in tax as a share of our personal income (17%) than we have at any time since 1971. It goes without saying that he could and should emphasize that taxes will not be going up for any but the very wealthiest—that cuts affecting working and middle-class families will be extended. As for the “job killer” rhetoric of Sen. Hatch and the rest, the president could actually have some fun poking holes in the fantastical idea that handing rich a…
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…cted for Jackson to a rather cartoonish alteration of his physical body. Many have lamented the changes in appearance, linking them to a graphic representation of internalized racism made manifest through wealth; plastic surgery isn’t cheap! Toni Morrison pointed out the ‘wish’ of sameness—the desire on the part of some African Americans to see reflected in themselves and through themselves the ‘ideal’ depicted in US popular culture. Morrison refe…
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