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American Nuns Under the Vatican Microscope

By Mary E. Hunt

…a short leash on those who might think for themselves. There are questions about the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience: what they mean and how they are lived out. There are questions about finances and care of the elderly, but there is no inquiry into how the sisters love one another and how that love propels their ministry. There is no concern for how a community supports a nun who does civil disobedience and goes to jail to help stop war…

RDPulpit: Ahmadinejad Gives Another Victory to the Israeli Right

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

…d being expressed. All the more so when one witnesses the striking silence about the racism that led to the Hutu-Tutsi massacres, the destruction of Buddhism in Tibet by Chinese racism, the oppression of women and gays in many Muslim countries, and the list could go on and on. By singling out Israel, Ahmadinejad proves the case for many Israelis that the critique is not simply a matter of rational opposition to oppressive policies, but rather a ma…

Found in Translation: How a Thirteenth-Century Islamic Poet Conquered America

By Ryann Croken

…ared that Barack Obama might be a secret Arab-Muslim. What strikes me most about the criticisms against Barks is that they generally accuse him of giving Rumi too friendly of a face—making him too universal, too endearing, too accessible to Americans. It is here that my praise for Barks flows in exactly the opposite direction of the criticism he has attracted. Although Barks may have had to escort Rumi through Ellis Island to import him to the Uni…

Ten of Our Favorite Top Tens

By The Editors

…Commandments, to the ten avatars of Vishnu (Krishna was number eight), to Buddhism’s ten precepts, religions are all about systems, ethical prescriptions—or proscriptions—and grand schemes. Order out of chaos is the name of the game. All this to suggest that the Top Ten list is obviously something deeply ingrained in the human experience. So here, without further preamble, RD’s picks for the Ten Best of 2008’s Religion Top Ten lists. 1.) By now,…

The Sacramental American Day of Thanks

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…hat he called its “third time of trial.” Surprisingly, he was not thinking about the Civil Rights movement; he was thinking about Vietnam. Given that the spiritual heart of the American civil religion was, for Bellah, a largely prophetic caution against idolizing the nation, and the importance of holding it accountable to transcendent standards of ethical behavior and international justice, Bellah’s decision to focus on foreign rather than domesti…

Progressive & Religious

By Robert P. Jones

…good. This new face of religion is certainly important for people who care about religion. But politically progressive people should care about this new religious movement—primarily because it is genuinely progressive. Every major movement for social change in this country has had religious leaders in the leadership. By trying to avoid religion and deeply held values—either because of a reaction to the Religious Right or out of a wish not to exclu…

The Kremlin and the Church: Russia’s Holy Alliance

By Konstantin Petrenko

…common after the Russian government adopted the 1997 law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations.” Promoted by the Orthodox Church and directed specifically against new religious movements, the law distinguished between the four traditional faiths—Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism—and non-traditional groups such as Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-Day Saints, and Hare Krishnas. In order to maintain legal status,…

What’s in an “Om”?: How Women are Transforming Yoga

By Meera Subramanian

…s loaded when it comes to yoga. I resist the tones of narcissism: it’s all about me and my journey and my personal development. But what—really—are the religious fundamentals of yoga if not this focus on self-actualization? It is a journey, with one’s body and mind the traveling partners, and (as some of the film segments show) an extension to service to a wider community. Stretch the body, still the mind, seek the union, the yoking, that is what…

Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of Horror

By W. Scott Poole

…ample (literally) of how spiritual traditions fuse with patriarchal ideals about sexuality and notions of purity. A spiritual parable about contemplating the death of a young woman to control ones “juices” assumes the male spiritual seeker as the universal subject while borrowing from thousands of years of pathological conceptions of sexuality. And yet, after many years of being mostly disturbed by this story, I’ve come to see other kinds of possi…

Gambian President Threatens to Kill Asylum Seekers

By Peter Montgomery

…. In Sri Lanka, a Buddhist nationalist group has emerged, which interprets Buddhism as being non-accepting of LGBT people In the Philippines, the Catholic bishops conference has been “very adamant and assertive” in blocking passage of anti-discrimination legislation for sexual orientation and gender identity. Although religious beliefs and institutions are often a source of discrimination, researchers said that some individual faith leaders are a…