Religion Dispatches
…5. And yes, the unruly were rallying once again. Orange of every shade—the official color of pro-choice activists in the debate—flooded the south steps of the Capitol. Texas Senators and Representatives, including Kirk Watson, Leticia Van de Putte, Senfronia Thompson, and, of course, Wendy Davis, offered stirring speeches; Natalie Maines sang the National Anthem; Texas religious leaders spoke of God, faith, trust in a woman’s ability to choose, an…
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…ed ‘information revolution.’ Particularly among the opinion makers in the ‘official’ Jewish establishment criticism of Israel is considered an attempt to ‘deligitimize’ the state. Oz’s critique of force as the commonly applied ‘solution’ to the political aspirations of the Palestinians hearkens back to the writings of Israel’s most trenchant critic of the occupation, Professor Y. Leibowitz of the Hebrew University. In the aftermath of the 1967 War…
Read More…) events: [T]his controversy played out according to a familiar script: 1) Official says something uncomfortable but true about Israel; 2) The Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) condemn the statement, pretending to be shocked and appalled that anyone could ever criticize Israel; 3) Democratic and Republican senators rush to condemn the statement as well, with the Republican response a little more intens…
Read More…ly flyer Hughes was passing out.) As I discuss in the piece, there was one official and explicitly Islamophobic panel at the conference, the essential premise of which was that shari’ah law is coming to America, beware, beware! The panel included former CIA director James Woolsey, activist-scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and National Review contributor Andrew McCarthy — whose book, How Obama Embraces Islam’s Shari’ah Agenda, was peddled in CPAC’s exhibit…
Read More…nce of West Java amid renewed fears of crackdown on sexual diversity.” One official told Human Rights Watch, ““It’s not acceptable to have female couples living together. Some have short hair, acting as the males. Some have long hair, acting as the females. It’s against sharia [Islamic law]. It’s obscene.” The group had been renting a shared house in the village of Tugu Jaya, where their cohabitation and “unfeminine” appearance had unsettled conse…
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…led as something of a geological core indicating the state of the nation’s official martial self-understanding. Sixty years ago, having just authorized secret combat operations in Vietnam, President Kennedy prayed “in the name of those who have fought in this nation’s wars” that “there will be no veterans of any further war—not because all shall have perished but because all shall have learned to live together in peace.” That prayer has gone unans…
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…eek with the dissemination of “A Different Kind of Republican Leader,” the official Rand Paul campaign trailer. Painting Paul as a kind of superhero—framed against garish red light with a thumping guitar and synth soundtrack—reminiscent of Tony Stark at the end of the first Iron Man movie, declaring the super-robot’s true identity and smirking up a new audience for himself. Paul is decidedly not an enthralling public speaker, but the music and qui…
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…its financial support in the process. Happily, Bishop Jon Bruno of the Episcopal Diocese offered to sponsor the group under Episcopal auspices. Robert K. Ross, President and CEO of The California Endowment, a donor agency issued a wonderful letter spelling out why the Endowment donated $50,000 and asking other people and agencies to do the same. He wrote: While civic and public discourse these days seems to be dominated by scapegoating, intoleranc…
Read More…y or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It’s that last part in bold that’s so chillingly familiar in the Catholic cases. This time, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s U.N. ambassador, tried to take refuge in its postage-stamp sized headquarters as the extent of its responsibility, the same shrinking tactic, with similar results. He didn’t take except…
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…mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub on Sunday came weeks after a top ISIS official issued a call for attacks throughout the world during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began on June 6.” Scott Lively’s new anti-gay strongman-crush: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán Globe-trotting anti-gay activist Scott Lively, who has long been a fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has another strongman-crush. Last Monday Lively posted a reflection about Hung…
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