Religion Dispatches
…hrough the gate leading to the water, one must punch in a combination pass code. The town’s elegantly manicured gardens belie its state’s housing market collapse. But just outside of town, realtors advertise “Free Foreclosure Lists!” Sitting along a commons of lush grass, an attractive young couple casually dressed in designer sunglasses, khakis, and expensive sandals led a group of fair-haired children in prayer. The young blond woman urged the c…
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…ways, some more sophisticated than others. While some advocates of Zionism used it to imply that Palestine was empty of people, that suggestion was contradicted by the reports of many Western visitors. The phrase was most pointedly used to claim that the Arabs of Palestine had no distinct Palestinian identity. They were ‘‘Arabs,’’ not a cohesive national group. That Palestine was not ‘‘empty’’ (in either the demographic or political sense) soon be…
Read More…ay messages when spoken by anti-gay people, even if it is spoken in pretty code. Michael Jones over at Change.org celebrated Osteen’s appearance at the inauguration: “But give both Osteen and Parker some credit. Today was a day for the history books for LGBT politicians, and also a day where a socially conservative evangelical leader and a progressive lesbian mayor found some common ground in celebrating a victory.” This was written before Iloff’s…
Read More…nt of alliteration and assonance are all creative staples of the African American homiletic tradition. Whether Richard Allen, France Haper, Barbara Jordan or Martin Luther King, Jr., President Obama in many ways extends this rhetorical ritual of performed religious and political speech. Just because one doesn’t sound like Mushmouth from Fat Albert or use the imaginary “jive” language from the movie Airplane does not mean that one is not informed b…
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…oday that semantic changes are superficial, since yoga practice itself will “go within, shift consciousness and alter beliefs.” Thus, getting yoga into schools, albeit without Sanskrit terminology, amounted to a “Vedic Victory.” Even if the Alabama Senate refuses to pass the House bill, the state’s school children will not be deprived of exercise or even stretching. The required and elective classes included in Alabama’s current physical education…
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…ality to Nazism. There was, of course, no need to debate Catholics for Equality’s mission by mentioning Soros. The fact that NOM did speaks to an effort to deploy conservative tropes about who is or isn’t the “real” religious person, and to drop code that political adversaries betray God to support evil. But it was Gallagher who had the gall to call out Catholics for Equality in her prepared remarks. “There is still time to repent,” she said witho…
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…” taking advantage of the “trust and dependency of clients,” and deceptive promotion of products. At Wyler’s Arizona retreat, I was introduced to that healing touch therapy: I sat on the floor between the outstretched legs of a camp guide, my head leaning back against his shoulder. The guide sat behind me, his arms wrapped around my chest. This hold was called “The Motorcycle.” Five men surrounded the two of us, their hands resting gently on my ar…
Read More…pt to say that those seeking to be elected have a special dispensation because if they do not speak against the decision of the Supreme Court they would not be elected makes a mockery of truth and the obligation candidates have to make known their positions. Politicians, elected or seeking to be elected, must remember at all times that holding office or getting elected to office does not trump life. Their moral responsibility is to lead the nation…
Read More…are the correct ones. Think about the term “jihad.” It’s one of the most abused and misused terms of its kind. The vast majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims understand the concept in a non-violent way; it’s a struggle, they say, to live a pious life in the face of challenges. Writes Asma Afsaruddin here in RD: If we put on our historical glasses, a considerably different picture emerges. The earliest connotations of jihad had to do with pat…
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…els like a place where love and sex have parted ways, and where the arc of freedom is bending toward license. It is in this context that Mr. Johar’s equivocations acquire special meaning. He is not popular among activists and the intelligentsia. They accuse him of reducing gay characters to effeminate parodies. Apurva Asrani, the script writer of “Aligarh,” an affecting film about a gay professor in a Muslim university town, wrote in The Wire: “Sa…
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