Religion Dispatches
…d the time to read more fiction and/or the talent to write it. What’s your new book? I have three new things in the works right now. My friend John Carlson and I have co-edited a volume on religion and violence in American history. We have seventeen wonderful contributors, including Martin Marty, John Corrigan, Stanley Hauerwas, Eddie Glaude, Jr., Brent Plate, Sohail Hashmi, James Turner Johnson, and Jean Bethke Elshtain; and we have chapters cove…
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…leaders in Phoenix invited the UUA to join them for the July 29 Day of Non-Compliance in Arizona. The UUA has four congregations in Phoenix that have been leaders on immigration reform. These congregations and their pastoral and lay leaders played important roles in figuring out the on-the-ground activities and coordinating the big July 29 events. Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, minister of the UU Congregation of Phoenix, sent an e-mail invitation to…
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…r held on to his penis while the dad called the local healer. She was an 80-year-old woman, and she remembered other panics. She believed it was caused by an evil wind that was coming through the village. She treated the boy and then the boy went back to school. Then the headmaster of the school heard about this and called all 680 students, boys and girls, together in the courtyard. He described the incident in detail and said, “This is dangerous….
Read More…r-day Saints posted yet another undated, unsigned document on its official website, this one on the topic of “Book of Mormon and DNA Studies.” The essay addresses issues raised by the fact that there is little to no DNA evidence supporting the Mormon claim that the indigenous people of the Americas are the descendants of Hebrews who left Jerusalem around 600 BCE. This belief was so ingrained that for a very long time, Mormons referred to Native Am…
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…is ending—when the Republicans have been fully taken over by Trumpist rule-by-conspiracy-theory, and the Democrats have Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr as candidates who appeal to the conspiracy theory/new age spirituality segment of their voters. Bowman’s book reveals the roots of this reformulation of power relations in America which is rewiring the basic functioning of democracy. A new power and place in the universe But the Hills…
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…d’s economic systems – socialism, communism, fascism, and even the vaunted free enterprise system – perpetuate social stratification, elitism, nationalism, and racism, primarily based on economic disparity. As long as a social system uses money or barter, people and nations will seek to maintain the economic competitive edge or, if they cannot do so by means of commerce they will by military intervention. We still utilize these same outmoded metho…
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…ri Museveni and David Bahati (Uganda), and finally to our very own criminal-in-chief, Donald John Trump. Homophobia, misogyny, and contempt for the poor (aka the un-chosen) are so very much taken for granted and accepted as “Christian” within The Family that its principals are able to say, with a perfectly straight face, that they have no political agenda when they support and subsidize authoritarian leaders around the world who exemplify and impl…
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…gated neighborhoods, schools, tax credits for middle class homeowners, and higher-paying jobs. Complex families of color that are either headed by single gay or straight parents are marginalized as inherently dysfunctional, welfare-dependent, and socially borderline. Loving gay partners of color with children are nonexistent. This media white-out has insidious implications for both straight and gay children of color. If gay children of color don’t…
Read More…sciences that are “controversial.” On Friday, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) filed SB70 to repeal the law, which passed in 2008 with overwhelming support from the House and Senate. This new legislation will be considered in the upcoming regular session of legislature, which starts Monday. Jindal has said through a spokesperson that he opposes repealing the law. The Nobel Laureate letter says: Because science plays such a large role in…
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…the rules and restrictions that came along with that heritage. As cool and open-minded as my parents were, they were still Iranian immigrants who held on to traditional beliefs. How could I explain to my peers that I couldn’t go out on a Friday night because I had Sabbath dinner or that the fabric and makeup of my family was just different than theirs? Jerry Garcia (right) and keyboardist Vince Welnick perform at the Los Angeles Coliseum on June 1…
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