Religion Dispatches
…mahram. This was a question I asked my travel agent before I submitted my deposit. At my age there is no restriction, but for all you young and fine ladies, there are ways to get around it— including what they did in Egypt but I did not learn about in time, and that is that the hosting travel agent can act as mahram. Still I think it is a stupid rule especially for hajj. At some other point I might tell you what my Saudi friend does in order to t…
Read More…o are tempted to think of themselves not as guardians but as owners of the deposit of faith, “making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing! They call them ‘byzantinisms,’ I think, these things…” At the gathering’s closing mass the following day, Francis declared that “God is not afraid of new things. That is why he is continuously surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpect…
Read More…ers”), I had to make a commitment to send a two-thousand dollar refundable deposit. I did, and so the counter-commitment began. So I start with my questions: knowing the Saudi restrictions that women cannot travel without a mahram, I asked if there would be a problem for me. I get an answer that borders on a fiqh explanation about mahram “in Islam.” I thought, well now, that’s an interesting way to respond to a visa question. However, for me they…
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…he traditional structures of “religion” are weaker, there remains a strong deposit of “faith” among the people. Country pilgrimages still thrive. When there is a local tragedy – fishermen drowned at sea, teenagers killed in a bad road collision – the parish priest still speaks for the people, and organises the rites of passage. And solace. I was in a church in a small Co Leitrim townland of 900 people not long ago when the priest thanked parishion…
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…stian nation. While always willing to work with anyone interested in Bible promotion, the ABS, as Fea explains, “has always gravitated towards the particular expression of Christianity that its board and staff believed to be the moral guardians of America’s status as a Christian nation.” A particularly fascinating narrative line of the book is about the ABS’s key role in “innovation, both in American Christianity and the nation as a whole.” Fea de…
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…inciple that imagining creates reality has captivated modern readers,” the promo copy explains. The publisher probably didn’t expect the book to resonate quite so uncomfortably with the political moment when they chose November 8th—Election Day—as its publication date. But indeed, Donald Trump’s distinctive style has roots in the spiritual tradition of which At Your Command and The Secret are both a part. Neville was just ahead of his time. Born i…
Read More…ding up to this year’s election.“ (For more on Pray the Vote, go here) The promo for Craig Detweiler’s new book Into the Dark reads: “Detweiler, a well-respected film expert and media spokesperson on Hollywood and Christianity, examines forty-five twenty-first-century films that resonate theologically—from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Little Miss Sunshine—offering groundbreaking insight into their scriptural connections and theological applica…
Read More…view LGBT people—as purely sexual beings. Foster’s screed is simply a long promo for a new ex-gay movie coming out, and the trailer, three-minutes of nauseating footage, centers around how each of these former homosexuals lived their lives in clubs, engaging in cheap, easy, and often public sex, or were sexually abused. For all the claptrap the religious right yells about how they don’t want to think of us “that way,” the trailer for the film is p…
Read More…R. Reno asks, why all this evangelical fuss now? And what is especially Christian about Christian ecology? Lauri Lebo points out that not everyone involved in the cleanup is an evangelical Christian. Some of them just used to be. Malaysia is abuzz about the new hit reality series Young Imam. The winner of the show gets a scholarship, a job at a Kuala Lampur mosque, and a free trip to Mecca. On American TV, Fox’s comedy Glee will be adding a Chris…
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…right to compromise with sin.” “We cannot and will not remain silent when promoted sin is corrupting the human soul and body,” the bishop wrote, saying it was especially inappropriate for the event to take place during Lent. The bishop also emphasized “that we do not bless our faithful to take part in any protests” and urged against temptation “to aggression or condemnation of others.” (English via Google translate) Event organizers released a st…
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