Religion Dispatches
…ry. For years now we have been able to escape our physical spaces with our phones. But Pokémon Go doesn’t just allow us to avoid a “real” place in favor of a “virtual” one. It has instead transformed our real spaces into virtual ones. It may have been bad manners to play video games at a cemetery, or to take a selfie at a funeral, but with Pokémon, the funeral, the cemetery, and now even the Holocaust memorial and 9/11 memorial, have become the ga…
Read More…s a long history of working from religious principles, particularly in his commitment to non-violent strategies. Boy, is he ever committed. Charlie Pierce wrote the other day that There are several retired members of the Alabama state patrol that can tell you that, when John Lewis sets his mind to something, he doesn’t much care what happens to him along the way. That put me in mind of this upcoming Sunday’s gospel text. Jesus has his face “set on…
Read More…ho laugh at the idea of justice are returned to power. Those who scorn the common work, who mock the very idea of community even as they receive its benefits, drive our politics. My son has never known a nation that was not at war. He has never known a nation where jobs for the many outweighed wealth for the few, where health for the struggling outweighed profits for the faceless multinationals, where banks were not entitled to eat before the work…
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…myself. I learned to be a healer in my community. Surely, gay nightclubs become religious spaces amidst the communitas of queer bodies inhabiting space together in kinship, but our people, Latin@s and Latin Americans, have a long history of creating ceremonial centers when our own homes became violent landscapes. And just so, Latin@ queer spaces were always spaces of healing—migratory spaces we journeyed to, to be in solidarity with one another in…
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…visit Canada and spend an evening with Raihan, Samia, and Sophie. I was welcomed with big smiles into their apartment and soon saw Sophie in her play chair. Raihan and his family now feel safe. And Abir remains hopeful for Bangladesh. “Because this dark side, this kind of thing, never [wins]. Maybe they do atrocities, maybe they will kill us. But they won’t be winning in the long run. So we’ll have to keep on doing what we do—keep informing people…
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…scientist Paul Djupe, both of whom research evangelicals and politics, for comment. Both Whitehead and Djupe immediately observed that the lack of information on the response rate and the obscuring of differences of opinion over theology among evangelicals call the survey’s results into question. Referring to a white paper on Lifeway’s methods that he called “light on details,” Djupe noted, “If the data were gathered from a reliable online panel a…
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…many times I have witnessed firsthand the scorn, shame and rejection that comes when one of our own wanders or falls away. The phone calls stop, the texts cease, and the friendships end (scriptures such as Matthew 5:30; Matthew 18:15-17; and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 are usually cited as reasons for “radical” acts of amputation). But how are we defining what is radical? Are we only radical when it comes to sexual sin? Are we radical in our love for th…
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…“Some philosophical analyses may conclude that a fatalistic determinism is compatible with highly ethical behavior,” the psychologist Jesse Bering comments in an article on these studies, “but the present results suggest that many laypersons do not yet appreciate that possibility.” Theologians have proposed that science still allows faith in a “God of the gaps,” who dwells within those shadowy realms into which science has not fully penetrated, su…
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…s would be pimped out on the internet by perverts. Now, social media has become the latest “sinful” activity. Perhaps Rev. Miller should get on the phone to Sarah Palin, and counsel her about her kids’ activity on Facebook. Bristol Palin found time from her “Dancing with the stars” practice to get on Facebook with her sister Willow to ride on a friend who had the chutzpah to say “Sarah Palin’s Alaska is failing so hard right now.” Willow’s respons…
Read More…s right in front of us, difference is on our iPads, in our laptops, in our phones. We hold a whole world of difference every time we open a phone. And the response to in the world around is at best insult, and so often violence, a reality which is the living experience of many you here. Welby also addressed a January gathering of Primates, which voted to suspend the Episcopal Church from questions on doctrine or policy for three years because of i…
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