Religion Dispatches
…e other church program is the worldwide creation of temples: those special-use limited-access buildings used for rituals (not the regular open-access church buildings used for Sunday services). In the pioneer period, temples were grand edifices that echoed Utah’s mountains in their architecture. Each was different. But since 1997 the Church has built or authorized the construction of one hundred “mini-temples,” most of them beyond the Mormon Cultu…
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…ter”. As well as posters, the scheme also aims to tackle improper language use – such as “that’s so gay” – by showing children how to use other phrases to describe something negative. Wendy Francis – Queensland state director of the ACL – told the Brisbane Times: “No one should be bullied at school, including children grappling with same-sex attraction or gender confusion. “But this program goes way beyond an anti-bullying program…Children have th…
Read More…or Ms. in English—Hajjah Naimah or Hajji Umar, for example. It can also be used alone, the way we say sir or ma’am. Occasionally it is used for an older person to show respect even if the person has not actually made the pilgrimage. But mostly, it is about a status. I think about this now, since I have actually waited almost 30 years since I tried to go the first time. If I had gone then, I would surely be less anxious to do it again at this age….
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…onships with coalition partners are transformative, not transactional, because we understand the connectivity between the issues that each partner focuses on and embrace them as our own. We must build relationships that are long-term, not based on one issue or campaign. The greatest myth of our times is that extreme policies only hurt a small subset of people, such as people of color or the poor. These policies harm us all. I’d say this: Think lon…
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…dates came in the form of voter guides in English and Spanish intended for use with churches. Consistent with the culture warring themes of the Christian Right in the past year, the guides asked candidates to agree or disagree with five statements regarding “Critical Race Theory,” “Parental Rights,” “Boys Playing Girl Sports [sic],” “Sex Education,” and “Gender Identity Pronouns.” The fine print at the bottom of each voter guide illuminates the in…
Read More…abies,” as Bray put it. He was careful to say that he did not advocate the use of violence, but morally approved of it in some instances. He was “pro-choice,” as he put it, regarding its use. Bray found support for his position in actions undertaken during the Nazi regime in Europe. His moral exemplar in this regard was the German theologian and Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who abruptly terminated his privileged research position at Union…
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…to spread all over the place, no one felt much like fishing anymore, and Kruse, like many other Gulf captains in his position, was forced to work for BP to help with the cleanup operation. Kruse signed himself and his boat, “The Rookie,” up for the “Vessel of Opportunity” program, through which BP contracts independent captains to use their private vessels to perform tasks such as laying down “booms,” skimming and burning oil off the surface, ferr…
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…be a small wooden structure that would house the wood-fired evaporator we use to turn sap into maple syrup in the spring. The project took longer than anticipated due in part to our choice to use 150-year-old salvaged beams from an old shed torn down several years before on our property. The days’ frustrations culminated for me when we ran out of saw blades that could easily cut through solid steel Rebar but somehow lost their bite on the old bea…
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…nt levels of “strictness.” For example, if the modern state ever wishes to use racial categories in making policy, then, because of our checkered and very bloody racial history, these discriminating laws and policies will be subject to the very strictest scrutiny. (That is what has bedeviled affirmative action policies of late; even using such categories for the noblest of purposes is Constitutionally suspect, at least at the outset.) If the state…
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…y as a critique of mythology. This is why this film is worth watching: because it shows how the use of mythological structures and elements can be used against other, perhaps more oppressive stories. Propositional logic (the kind Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens use) offers straightforward, non-fictional language that makes truth claims and offers critiques. That may offer a viable critique of the ideologies of myth, yet here…
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