Religion Dispatches
…ings like a wooden fruit bowl, a few artificial flowers, half a bottle of Sprite, and some phone chargers. The two smaller images feature the cluttered interior of a walk-in closet with a bunch of clothes and a faint family portrait on the wireframe shelf, and something that will be familiar to anyone with a newborn child: a rocking seat next to a pink and yellow baby mat. With the caption “A Home Revealed,” the audience is left to make sense of t…
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…s Ordinance XX, prohibiting Ahmadis even from taking part in common Muslim practices such as the call to prayer, using the greeting “As-salamu alaykum,” or reciting the shahada, the Islamic creed: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” Since then, Zia’s order has been ratified by every successive government. When Mahershala Ali won his Oscar the other night, a Pakistani diplomat wrote – and quickly deleted – a congratulatory t…
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…s the least I can do. There are not many white Muslim converts in America, proportionally speaking, and I’m sure sometimes they feel overrun by the preponderance of brown. (Get used to it, world. Rabbits breed like us.) And sometimes humor does go too far. But the real reason I’m writing, Lindsay, isn’t because of that—although I am sorry—or even Mean Girls, one of the best movies ever. Or even that I had the biggest crush on you because of that m…
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…us offense (listed under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code) can face a prison sentence, a hefty fine, or an extra-judicial killing. Whatever the trigger is, and whether or not arrests are made, we see that violence often takes place shortly after. Often, these rumors spread via Facebook or WhatsApp. Soon, a mob will gather. They will destroy homes, shops, and places of worship belonging to the minority community. Law enforcement will often tur…
Read More…love. It doesn’t work for me. SH: I grew up in Meridian, Idaho, and I was pretty virulently homophobic. Back in high school, in 1994, there were protests when a lesbian couple was brought to speak at our high school. Go back and look at the newspapers from that moment, and you’ll see pictures of a young Scott Holley protesting against the teachers who brought gay people into our high school. I moved to Massachuestts in 2004 with my wife, just in…
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…be an anthropologist to realize that there’s not a blossoming of Islam in Springfield, Ohio, and there’s not a blossoming of Protestantism in Mecca. If there were one truth, you might expect that it would spread everywhere equally, but obviously it doesn’t. It’s all culturally conditioned. It is the case that neuroscience is squarely in the middle of the arena in all these discussions, but I can imagine that a hundred years ago, before neuroscienc…
Read More…d while this is a legitimate discussion for people of faith to have, the appropriate arena that conversation is the house of worship, the seminary, the Bible study or some other religious setting.” Anti-equality forces are mobilizing religious voices as well. A group of anti-equality pastors held a competing Friday press conference led by Rev. William Owens, whose right-wing Coalition of African American Pastors has called on black Christians to w…
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…ising choice via Twitter, saying different wording “might have been more appropriate.” But the blunder was evidence of a growing trend to cry “oppression” when the opinions of influential white men in highly esteemed positions are called into question, or claim “bullying” when actually marginalized groups respond with anything outside of capitulation. When PTS originally announced its intention to bestow the award to Keller along with a $10,000 ca…
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…ted to ending poverty, educating children, reforming health care, protecting LGBT rights, and affirming the moral agency of women and their right to comprehensive reproductive health care. Now there’s a Catholic we could canonize….
Read More…far between. The New York Times builds its whole story out of a handful of phone calls and an email. But the article indicates that those who run the various nonprofits that help soldiers achieve conscientious objector status expect a floodgate of calls if Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is formally repealed. The good news is that the groups don’t think there is legal basis for the claims. In the “don’t ask, don’t tell” cases, Ms. McNeil concluded that there…
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