Religion Dispatches
…mature person. Age does not make maturation, per se. Yesterday we had the best of the best; the age was augmented by the quality of maturation and illuminated by the etiquette (or adab) of simple yet deep devotion. I was, for a brief moment, at home and when this happens to me, I feel a special grace from Allah. I could just be in the midst of my own love for Allah. I did not have to fight. I did not have to struggle for justice. And even more: I…
Read More
…at was the kind of outcome Gandhi in principle always opposed. Rather, the best resolution was the binational state that Buber so courageously worked for, in which each group could faithfully serve the best interests of the other. Unfortunately Gandhi and Buber never met—neither personally, nor in a confluence of thought that might have produced a kind of “nonviolence of I and Thou.” Who knows what effects such a globe-spanning new interfaith trad…
Read More…ment to Jesus Christ active in their life today. What’s surprising is the “best-selling author” who has made this startling statement is none other than George Barna – who is a conservative author and pollster. His latest poll is a spiritual profile of “homosexual adults” and the “surprising insights” are that gays and lesbians are just as apt to believe in God and be Christians as any other human being, despite their sexual orientation. As a Chri…
Read More
…triotic sensibilities. Underscoring her own patriotism, when accepting the best picture and best director awards, Bigelow dedicated them to the “women and men in the military who risk their lives daily to keep us safe.” With these words and in the film, Bigelow reminds us that war is hell, while reassuring us of our good intentions. For all the terror it depicted, the message was predictable and safe. A Modern Form of Nature Religion In Avatar, di…
Read More
…d to maintain a posture of resistance to the American status quo. At their best, to borrow from Cornel West, they too are often “progressive yet co-opted.” This simply means to recognize that black Christians are a part and parcel of, as David Wills has long written, the Protestant establishment. Yet even this view of black churches says little about what is religious in the discussion. We might ask, what distinguishes “post-black church” rhetoric…
Read More
…ice commitment grew, Merton was unflinching in critiquing his earliest and best-known work, The Seven Storey Mountain, for being so focused on the importance of contemplation as to be acquiescent in relation to social injustice. But Raboteau is at his very best in evoking Howard Thurman’s under-appreciated greatness: his distinctive and powerful nature-based mysticism, his prescience in respect to the spiritual cost of environmental degradation, h…
Read More
…ctly private property in the manner of Athenian slaves; rather, they could best be described as serfs or slaves of the public: available and expected to do the public’s bloody business of conquest and pillage. Let us say it clearly and see how it feels upon the tongue: today’s “all-volunteer” military represents a contemporary form of helotry. We give the great majority of our young very little hope for a foothold in our collapsed economy; then we…
Read More…and over again. Imagine my thoughts about this reversed order, right? The best position for the man in hajj is behind the woman. It made sense that these guys would literally need to be instructed for such, because their normal way of thinking must be, me first. Yes, yes, our wives are equal, but we’re the standard bearers and she must follow our leads. But in the jostle, if the person is behind you, they are more likely to be separated by the cr…
Read More…s a negotiated settlement between progressives and evangelicals is weak at best. To claim King’s legacy without his sacrifice is childish; to bear witness to his courage but lack his conviction is cowardly. They betray King’s legacy, hinder democracy and make a mockery of the tradition that afforded me the right to write these words as free man. But there is hope. In the prophetic tradition that King embodied, there is much that the signers of “Re…
Read More
…lebook. They are recruited into the Church to serve two functions: They’re promotional tools, and they fund the Church. The rules are bent for them. In the New Yorker piece on Paul Haggis, he tells this great story about how he always had doubts about Scientology and [whether] it worked—notably, once he got to the higher levels. He would talk to his auditor about them, and the auditor would allow it. That does not happen if you’re not a celebrity…
Read More