Religion Dispatches
…l be a solar storm of destruction. And then there is this notion that the planets are going to align; though December 21, 2012 is winter solstice and there is nothing apocalyptically significant about that phenomenon. There are also people who believe that spacemen helped the Maya, and they back up these theories by saying the Maya couldn’t have been capable of building what they built. All they are saying is that they are incapable of imaging the…
Read More…lity. And religious leaders are likely to line up in support for the outlawing of advocacy—a measure they can market as relatively moderate and tame as compared to the earlier iteration of the “Kill the Gays” bill. Such has already been the case in Nigeria, where Cardinal John Onaiyekan, a number of Roman Catholic bishops, and many evangelical leaders have celebrated the passage of the Nigerian anti-gay bill. Yet we cannot accept such attempts to…
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…and outside the White House with visitor passes around their necks, from a December 29, 2020 Brian Gibbs Facebook post that reads: “A profound & significant assignment here today at The White House…More to come…The future belongs to the righteous. Together Triumphant, BG” Photo taken inside the White House shared by Don Lynch on December 29, 2020, eight days before the assault on the Capitol. Image: Facebook Though Dutch Sheets hasn’t spoken publi…
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…e lack of an ending? #RDSerial #Serial — Andrew Aghapour (@AndrewAghapour) December 18, 2014 Listening to #serial with #RDSerial and @AndrewAghapour…I am afraid that the ending will be a non-ending — Kyla Taylor (@Kyla_Taylor) December 18, 2014 Kyla Taylor and I were not the only ones—Serial fans have been obsessing over the finale ever since the podcast caught up with real time at around Episode 9. Fans wanted a neat and tidy ending, and the fact…
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…hat both penances were accepted. Penance, an application released for the iPhone in early December, allows users to absolve one another’s sins. After passing the application’s obligatory security PIN system (conventional online security measures are the app’s primary faith-orientation), you come to an interface resembling a confessional booth. Through the left door you can “confess,” offering your sins to whoever is listening; behind the closed do…
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…us have drawn their share of criticism. “Some Christians think we are just cheap harlots and tell us so,” she says. “But to be honest, we really don’t care.” Even the television show, which begins with a warning about its potentially disturbing content, seems to favor sex over religion, the hookers over Jesus. “The parts that you will see is what [Investigation Discovery] chose to portray,” Lobért explained to The Christian Post: “There are a lot…
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…et is funded almost exclusively by ticket sales, and these tickets are not cheap (ranging this year, for example, from $210-$300 depending on time of purchase). This pays for the basic infrastructure as well as expenses like a hefty per-person/per-day use fee charged by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, a significant portion of each year’s budget is set aside to fund many of the large-scale art installations various participants bring to…
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…ted to get the kids thinking,” they told me. When I wondered if purchasing tickets for the kids using Salvation Army funds could be a violation of the church’s tax-exempt status, Miranda argued that she didn’t see a problem. Since the Bible is applicable to every facet of private and public life, she reasoned, how it would be possible to talk to the kids about anything government-related without jeopardizing their tax-exemption? “Our hands would b…
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…sus Christ” will get to heaven. (I’m not alone here, by the way; a growing number of evangelical Christians agree with me.) At the same time, the most moving and culturally important visions of heaven are those created by the conservative believers. These are the visions that move people to action: to be faithful to One God, for example, or to martyr themselves. I would like to believe in heaven as a concrete reality in the future, a place that re…
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…. ⬆ Earlier on this day, I saw a South Asian gentleman crossing an eight-lane highway while drinking a cup of tea out of a white ceramic mug. He took his time, pausing between lanes to let cars whiz by (at roughly 70 miles per hour) and took measured sips to pass the time, enjoying his hot and fresh caffeinated beverage, which no South Asian can survive without. I salute you, Ahmed Mohammed, or whatever the hell your name is, for your bravery, i…
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