Religion Dispatches
…social networking aficionado qualities: * We floss after every meal! * We freed Egypt! * We’re grounded, and well integrated, intuitive, not too full of ourselves, yet fully realized in the fabulous glow of our authenticity. Gosh we’re swell! * We’re God’s chosen Tweeters! Finding God on Facebook Ah, God. Was there any good news for religions in the Pew report? Certainly, the report makes clear that the vast majority of believers and seekers of e…
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…lates into open borders. The statement gives no tools for discernment, because the important distinctions between philosophical perspective and a theological perspective are not made. The concepts derived from scriptural admonitions to “render unto Caesar” (Matt. 22:21) and to submit to governing authorities (Romans 13) were emphasized throughout. Just Plain Mean I came away from the event feeling that these analysts and I live in very different w…
Read More…ccess. I think we have law everywhere else, but this is the slippery slope between freedom to practice religion and freedom from government interference. The past few nights I have gone into this local mosque for the tarawih prayers and come out with out making any human contact. I think this is part of my preparation for hajj: how to perform the ritual requirements without invoking the politics of justice at every juncture. For example, in this m…
Read More…1994 International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt. It states that abortion should not be promoted as a method of family planning. UNFPA fully subscribes to this and does not provide support for abortion services. It works to prevent abortion through family planning, and to help countries provide services for women suffering from the complications of unsafe abortion.” But that hasn’t stopped the religious right from a…
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…an enemy of theocracy. But the cause of spreading atheism is not to be confused with the cause of ending Islamist ideology and theocracy. Many of those in most active service of the latter cause are not self-identifying atheists but dissident Muslims and members of other minority faiths. Take for example, the Baha’i and the Copts of Egypt, who are relegated to second-class status; the Ahmadiyya Community, a large Muslim minority victimized by Paki…
Read More…if you’re going to start a campaign to end poverty, please, pretty please, use a hook that people can get hold of. And for God’s sake, don’t start with education programs for churches and arguing minute policy details with Congress. Hit ’em with something motivational, like the truth: Dear Mr. President & Congress: Our economic policies are a disgrace. They are structured to keep the vast majority of people poor or running as hard as they can to k…
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…even those school systems (and teachers and students) who can gasp their way across the finish line will remain in an ethically challenged condition. Because, as Bill Coffin used to say, “Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.”…
Read More…e conference, I met Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, the Apostolic Nuncio in Egypt, who has done much work on interfaith dialogue between Catholics and Muslims. I do hope that Al-Azhar resumes its dialogue with the Vatican, precisely because difficult times are when dialogue is most needed. As William Blake wrote, “It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity”. It is much more difficult to stay together when things are tough. And the sa…
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…ed, however, Passover became further removed from my annual celebration of freedom from Egyptian slavery and the hope for the end of American bondage to debates over whether, as a non-Ashkenazi Jew, I should eat rice or not during the holiday and scavenger hunts for Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola. My conversion created a tension between my Black self and my Jewish self, and in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, there were “two souls, two thoughts, two un…
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…n people their own territory after having suffered 400 years of bondage in Egypt. Although that territory was already occupied, God authorized his chosen people to invade, rape, pillage, massacre and even commit genocide against their Baal-worshipping Canaanite neighbors. But rarely do I read any commentary about this narrative of terrorism in the Bible when perusing critical articles on white Christian supremacy. It’s like decrying the increased…
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