Religion Dispatches
…he same time. Plus, it’s catchier than the Bed Intruder song. Second, Miss USA, a Muslim herself, has taken a stand against the Park51 project. So, there you have it. The Salem Witch Trials: video game edition. It’s like a Hawthorne short story for your PC or Mac. A Brooklyn rabbi has been approved to serve as a chaplain in the Army reserves but can’t because the Army wants him to shave his beard. As an older rabbi serving the Army put it, “Look a…
Read More…d the invasion and occupation of America.” The youth-focused Turning Point USA, one of the main groups responsible for Trump’s get-out-the-vote program, has been a strong booster of the message. Since the morning, TPUSA head Charlie Kirk and others have shared photos and reportbacks from polling places, claiming long lines of men ready to vote Trump. Of course, MAGA has long mobilized male supremacism at its core, claiming that masculinity is unde…
Read More…ls to take action against clerics credibly charged with abuse until the accusations are made public by a whistleblower or the media. Until the Times broke the story the Vatican didn’t wave diplomatic immunity for former nuncio Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski and move to prosecute him for allegedly soliciting young boys for sex while he was ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The Diocese of Saint Paul-Minneapolis and Bishop John Nienstedt didn’t get…
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…n American.” Just imagine a liberal clone of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA, with a generous dose of Up With People mixed in. The genre is country, and the lyrics and music a rousing populist invitation to reclaim America’s soul. The song narrates the story of an unemployed veteran from Iraq whose job has been outsourced to China via Washington. Outraged at the greedy capitalists, stagnating wages, high unemployment, and fundamentally unequal p…
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Cathy Lynn Grossman, at USA Today’s Faith and Reason blog, writes about how most Americans know very little about Islam. Intentionally or not, she actually models this ignorance of Muslim traditions. Like William Dalrymple in the New York Times, she pulls out this word “sufism,” as though it is the silver bullet that will bring peace to the world. To say that Feisal Abdul-Rauf is a sufi is technically true and about as useful as saying he is male…
Read More…r “men who act like women” or cross-dressers) population was an accepted Hausa subculture in the Muslim north. As a Muslim Bori practice, the yan daudu’s religious ritual is traditionally practiced and celebrated among its most marginalized populations, like sex workers, and gay, bisexual and transgender men. Since January, however, the group that was surprisingly driven underground is now being unearthed and actively pursued for punishment and pe…
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…ion scholars alike are expressing hunger for something more. Yesterday, in USA Today, religion scholar and author Steven Prothero lamented Romney’s own failure to engage the “Mormon moment,” blaming the quality of coverage on the general politicization of religion in the public sphere: Not so long ago, Romney would have had to explain Mormon theology to voters in some detail. But now that religion has collapsed almost entirely into morality, all…
Read More…an Southard at a dinner for LGBT advocates during the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly. In the midst of debates within both the Presbyterian Church and the nation, Rev. Southard’s point was that LGBT-rights advocates in the church should shout from the rafters that their actions are evangelical—in the deepest historical sense of the word—and in so doing, remind evangelicals of Christianity’s fundamental tenet of inclusion. Though it ha…
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…these people are nonbelievers. But most of them probably are. According to USA Today, this group—the unaffiliated—represent one of the “fastest-growing segments of the population.” Their percentage of the electorate has already grown from 9% in 2000 to 12% this year. It may even be that the category of unaffiliated underestimates the voting power of nonbelievers. The same Pew Forum study also reported on another question in national exit polling—h…
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…two million people participated, but Reuters reported that “hundreds of thousands” attended the rally in the ancient Circus Maximus, which authorities said could hold about 350,000 people. The week before, thousands of Italians had participated in pro-civil-unions rallies across the country. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is promoting the civil unions law but faces opposition from within his own government and from the Catholic Church. The president…
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