Religion Dispatches
…e truth about who these people are could not be known. Without the novel’s central character (a young, white, would-be writer named Skeeter), Abilene, Minnie, the other black women of the narrative would never have a voice or an opportunity to present their humanity to the world. This message is false because black women, from a variety of stations in life, have voice and live and demonstrate to the world fulfilled lives every day—without the assi…
Read More…all Street hucksters? But here’s the kicker: The fact that Jesus chose the free market system as the basis for this parable should not be overlooked. When the nobleman returns, after being established as king – a stand-in for Jesus – he calls all his servants together to see what they had accomplished in his absence. Ah. The kingdom Jesus is expecting upon his return is a free market system? Novel. Perkins goes on to argue that Jesus “rejected col…
Read More…geographic Muslim world; Turkey has historically had a profound impact on Central Asia and the Balkans. They’re also more likely and able to challenge Iran and Saudi Arabia for the authority to speak to Muslims. These are far better places to look to for future directions in Islamic thought and practice. Cairo and Istanbul, for example, will fairly or not overshadow Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, if only because they’ve been central to the Muslim ima…
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…with Modi has been so substantial that it earned him protection under the central government. Since 2014, a large round-the-clock team of Central Reserve Police Force personnel have protected Ramdev. And in 2015, Central Industrial Security Force commandos began providing security to Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth campus in Haridwar. The newest kind of old There’s a kind of a paradox in Ramdev’s work—one that may sound familiar to many observers of…
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…voting rights “Orwellian.” This allegation would be almost comical, given Republicans’ use of the phrase “ensuring election integrity” to promote Trump’s Big Lie, were it not for the hundreds of voter suppression laws that are already being introduced in Republican-controlled legislatures all over the country. Scott’s dystopian plan frames the crackdown on voting laws as a necessary measure to prevent the destruction of American democracy at the…
Read More…tly mention prosperity preacher Joyce Meyer, he references numerous tenets central to the prosperity gospel message: the power of positive thinking, the importance of managing your blessings, the ability to overcome impossible odds and seize your true destiny. “The prosperity gospel is fundamentally a theology that explains away luck,” writes American religious historian Kate Bowler. “It is a pragmatic, results-based, and therapeutic set of belief…
Read More…nerve to defend the Trump administration’s senseless immigration policy to Central American leaders, but that’s Pence for you. Manafort knew what he was doing when he selected that dead-eyed Opie from Indy. The man could lie about the dead grandmother in his basement and not break the plastic in his smile. After this speech, though, I’d want to run a metal detector over Pence’s zipper to check for brass castings. “Do justice and love kindness” is…
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…decide to support particular laws or policies, with Reagan religion became central to what we might call Politics as Personal Radiance. In a time of shrinking public resources and uncertain futures, we began to bathe willingly in the light of charisma, hoping that its warmth would sustain us where the state no longer would. And indeed, throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, these associations were steadily made more central to American politics. This…
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…mbers included Capt. Adir Gabbai and his husband Din as well as their dog. Central America: Profile of Central American LGBT refugees The Washington Blade’s Michael Lavers writes from El Salvador about LGBT migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. Japan: Report on scope of school bullying According to a survey by a nursing school professor in Osaka. “More than half of LGBT people in Japan were bullied in school and nearly 70 perce…
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…ce is safe space. Pastors, priests and rabbis who opened their churches to Central Americans did so at great risk: congregations sometimes turned against them, some were sent to jail, others shunned. When Omar Mateen entered Pulse Nightclub armed with a legally purchased automatic weapon, he did so on Latin Night. As the names of the victims began to roll out, the list did not sound much different than the names of refugees who fled Central Americ…
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