Religion Dispatches
…kind to everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just like Him. One day when I was about 8 years old, I was drawing the crucifixion as part of my Bible-studies homework. I loved art too. And nature. I loved how God made all the animals. They were also perfect. Unconditionally beautiful. It was an amazing world… As I said, it’s a really sweet essay. I hope…
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…ll (literally) with everyone else. We were twenty, and I forgive us. Twenty-year-olds have to be myopic to survive. The big picture can be potentially paralyzing to those whose brains have only recently gelled into maturity. But I turned 30 and finally 40 with this same mindset. In the end, I didn’t persevere. It wasn’t that the seed was snatched away; it’s just that I wasn’t coded for longevity. Somewhere along the way, I started to wither. I was…
Read More…s is systemic or systematic. Why not pick a case that’s a little more clear-cut? Just days after the Air Force’s report was released, Monk openly appeared (in possible violation of military code) at the Values Voters Summit for a panel. The Liberty Institute’s Jeff Mateer put his hand on Monk’s shoulder and praised him, saying, “We’ve gotten phone calls from military members who are undergoing discrimination…and with the exception of him, those fo…
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…perhaps without the type of quality control one would anticipate when face-to-face, or when shared in any way that brings the physical body into play. There’s an ability to hide oneself through technology that reduces vulnerability and reserve. What to do about this? I’m not giving up my messaging, and I’m not suggesting anyone should. Tweet if you must. Update your Facebook profile. There’s no turning back from this technology, the increased spe…
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…te. In fact, America is the most relevant: We are the hinge at which Muslim-minority and -majority meet. It’s a fascinating, controversial, and confusing mix of short-term power politics predicated on presumed long-term trends, wedding through American resources the potential capacities of Muslim-majority states and the mobile potency of transnational Muslim networks. For the Muslim-majority world, Obama’s choice is to strengthen the OIC. For Musl…
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…s from religion, especially by millennials, is happening because we’re 21st-century people still trying to hold 4th-century beliefs. Back then it was clear that God was above the sky and could look down and see all of your misbehavior and put it in the Book of Life and make you face it at the time of your judgment. There’s enormous behavior control operating. Galileo rendered God homeless and Isaac Newton rendered God unemployed so wherever we tho…
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…used to say, “Don’t talk about anti-Semitism. There’s no problem with anti-Semitism. Anti-Islamism is the real problem.” It’s not clear to me to what degree Islamophobia taps into our most basic critical vocabularies in the way in which anti-Judaism does. Islamophobia seems to me to be more explainable through more basic xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and nationalist—and sometimes racist—moves. It doesn’t seem to require the entire cultural apparatu…
Read More…a friend described people doing tawaf, or circumambulation around the kaaba, while sending text messages on a mobile phone. I just cannot see totally giving up my one-on-one moments with Allah just for a blog. That being said, let the preparations to meet the king begin….
Read More…ganization In Huffington Post UK, Lucy Sherriff profiles Amir Ashour, “a 25-year-old Iraqi and the founder of the country’s only organization for its queer community.” Amir left behind his home and family a year ago and is currently living in Sweden. There, he hopes to register and expand his charity IraQueer, as it is illegal to do so in Iraq. He has received multiple threats from both officials and his friends because of who he is and the work h…
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…sanctuary, an ecology or constellation of joyous practices of re/assemblage-amid-disassemblage. Quantum communions, quantum solidarities. Orlando’s Pulse is this too. This is a moment for unequivocal black church and queer/ LGBT solidarity because antiblackness and homophobia and transphobia are interconnected. More still, in the face of Trump’s doubling down on anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the shooting, it is a moment for a solidarity that…
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