Religion Dispatches
…p to Sheens on Avenue B, the bodega where you can spend $8 on a carton of milk and toilet paper. We live just to the west of Avenue B—bright red on the map, along with everything to the east. Mayor Bloomberg has ordered everyone living in the Red zone to evacuate. The storm looks big on the satellite images, really gnarly. I zoom in closer to make sure. Yes, our building is just on the other side of Zone A. From our door I could easily toss a r…
Read More…remony was partly to apologize to the goddess for damage caused by the BP oil spill of 2010, and partly to seek her guidance in finding better forms of water management. Unlike private services like blessings and divination, invoking La Siren for a symposium on water management is an eminently social and even political act. Glassman explained, “As a priestess, it’s my work to bring balance and healing and wholeness to the community.” The sociologi…
Read More…in the name of Islam. The Jerusalem Post’s report was based on the Saudi daily Eilpah, which cited an interview in a Swedish newspaper. In the interview, Salman Odah stated that “even though homosexuality is considered a sin in all the Semitic holy books, it does not require any punishment in this world. It is a sin that will accompany its committer in the life after death.” In the interview, Salman Odah stated that “even though homosexuality is c…
Read More…eteorite? Bomb? End of the world? We were freaked out. No television, cell phone, internet service. There was no way to find out what happened. Later that night, in the Mayan village, the men gathered outside our hut, talking about it in hushed voices. Lacking any better answers, my husband offered the theory that perhaps it was from aliens. We learned the source of the explosion the next morning. At 8:59, the space shuttle, taking a detour due to…
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…ent is being reviewed by the court’s nine judges in a reading period that will last until November 22. The Panamanian Alliance for Life and the Family said the reported recommendation “is in line with what the Constitution establishes, that the article of the Family Code is constitutional.” Uruguay: First transgender senator discusses legislative agenda Michelle Suarez, the country’s first transgender senator, was interviewed by Anastasia Moloney…
Read More…ph: As always, since intelligent design was ruled unconstitutional in Kitzmiller v. Dover, the introduced bills rely on such creationist code words as “teaching the controversy,” “academic freedom,” or “critical analysis.” His argument is that the Discovery Institute was promoting “critical analysis” long before intelligent design was exposed as nothing but revamped creationism. (One of the most problematic elements of intelligent design is its pr…
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…t time I’d darkened a church’s doorstep. To avoid the dreaded question, while still establishing a basic sense of belonging in the dozen or so churches I visited, I set down some rules of engagement. When the assembled faithful joined in song, I’d sing along. (My favorite hymn, Ressuscita-me, or “Revive me,” begs God for a miracle.) When the congregations swayed rapt, their hands raised to the heavens to beseech their God, I’d hold my hands palms…
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…e Joss Whedon-produced] The Cabin in the Woods, one of my favorite horror films. Or It Follows. Or The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, one of the most disturbing haunted house stories of all time. Or one of Robert McCammon’s horror novels from the 1980s, maybe The Wolf’s Hour or Mystery Walk. I’m currently reading my way through his oeuvre. McCammon’s horror writing is brilliant—evocative and touching and sometimes deeply disturbing, so…
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…gence apps” including As One America, which contains the name, address and phone number of Christian neighbors “who are not showing up to vote or who are not registered.” He then showed a map with big red arrows pointing to precincts “within striking distance” from Vida Church to the precincts that are “where the devil’s got a stronghold that God wants to break up.” The app was developed by Superfeed Technologies, which has also designed apps for…
Read More…alking about Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill, or what Maddow called the “Kill the Gays Bill,” on her nightly MSNBC show late last month, Lisa Darden knew she needed to make a phone call. Darden, a filmmaker and talent agent, had been interviewing conservative evangelical Christian leaders and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the religious right for the past several years for her soon to be released movie, For Such a Time as This. The documenta…
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