Religion Dispatches
…cause something very human in the act of forgiveness is left out. Today we commemorate the famous march on Washington, let us hope the offense of racism finds such recompense in America. In Malaysia and Indonesia, at the end of Ramadan there is a custom to seek forgiveness zahir and batin for offenses done knowing and unknowingly. We do not know all the time how our actions affect another person. So to keep the level of humanity in forgiveness str…
Read More…at cross purposes. My first thought was to kick myself for leaving my cell phone behind. This would have made a terrific picture. My second thought was to find a less obtrusive spot where I could watch to see how this excruciatingly slow drama would play out. But before I could move, my husband drifted up behind me in his kayak, took one look at the frog and snake and muttered, “I can’t take this.” Over my objections (“But it’s nature!”) Jeff stre…
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…n faith, asserts that faith is “integral” to the Party. But whose faith? A combined 30% of Obama’s support comes from voters who are not Christian: 23% from the unaffiliated and 7% from non-Christian religious voters. By contrast, just 10% of Romney’s support comes from non-Christians (8% unaffiliated, 2% non-Christian religious). How many points does Obama really score by burnishing his evangelical cred? Does it outpace the losses of those put of…
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…evolving sense of shared and sharing identities, it is also a ritualistic coming-of-age story in which young Zuckerberg becomes a man through rites of passage. These are peculiar rites to be sure, even as they mimic broad structures of separation, transition, and reincorporation found in initiation rites the world over. From Face-to-Face to Interface Reviewing the film in the New York Times, Manohla Dargis tells us, “instead of discovering his au…
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…st around 6 p.m. We watch its arrival on our big TV, snuggled under a down comforter. The weather graphics show the eye of the storm moving closer and closer to the New Jersey coastline. The closer it gets, the stormier it gets outside. My attention flickers between the virtual hurricane on TV and the rattling and cracking and whooshing sounds of the massive winds now hitting the neighborhood. There is a huge explosion; a flash lights up the wh…
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…our advocacy for religious freedom is really just Christian advocacy. Overcoming this impression, so that the United States might become a more effective, credible advocate for religious freedom in India will require consistent, intentional work. It will require a certain humble willingness to acknowledge and address our own problems with anti-minority harassment and violence. It will require more frequent expressions of concern not only for Musl…
Read More…s a long history of working from religious principles, particularly in his commitment to non-violent strategies. Boy, is he ever committed. Charlie Pierce wrote the other day that There are several retired members of the Alabama state patrol that can tell you that, when John Lewis sets his mind to something, he doesn’t much care what happens to him along the way. That put me in mind of this upcoming Sunday’s gospel text. Jesus has his face “set on…
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…myself. I learned to be a healer in my community. Surely, gay nightclubs become religious spaces amidst the communitas of queer bodies inhabiting space together in kinship, but our people, Latin@s and Latin Americans, have a long history of creating ceremonial centers when our own homes became violent landscapes. And just so, Latin@ queer spaces were always spaces of healing—migratory spaces we journeyed to, to be in solidarity with one another in…
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…styles, but I admire them both and try to emulate them—Carroll’s rigor in composition, the care and precision with which he writes, his dry wit, and Pinker’s air of genial intelligence, the way in which he explains complex subject matter clearly and with good humor. I admire especially Carroll’s Reading Human Nature and Pinker’s The Blank Slate. I also think any writer—literary, non-fiction, academic, whatever—should read Stephen King’s On Writin…
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…visit Canada and spend an evening with Raihan, Samia, and Sophie. I was welcomed with big smiles into their apartment and soon saw Sophie in her play chair. Raihan and his family now feel safe. And Abir remains hopeful for Bangladesh. “Because this dark side, this kind of thing, never [wins]. Maybe they do atrocities, maybe they will kill us. But they won’t be winning in the long run. So we’ll have to keep on doing what we do—keep informing people…
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