Religion Dispatches
…obesity in South Central PA, and its prevalence among Christians and non-Christians alike, I remembered something about gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins. And then it hit me like a T-bone steak through my TV screen—that’s right up there with lust on the list of deadly sins. Here we were, slothfully chowing away in the richest nation in the world, in a mall a few doors down from Excitement Video, where we could later amble over to engage…
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…d, any hand, in the lack of strong, independent regulation. This is a long list with guilt flowing in multiple directions for everything from apathy to self-righteousness. Near the center of that motley crew are those of us whose lifestyles are dependent upon a ‘religious’ devotion to cheap oil. The deepest irony of all is that BP, along with the other oil companies, has come to function as a god. The truth, buried beneath all the oil and punditry…
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…acirbey, in this HuffPo piece, examines several other “ex-Muslims” who are promoted as evangelical Christians. Most notable in his list is Kamal Saleem, who worked for Focus on the Family, and claimed to be descended from the “grand wazir of Islam.” Even though both Caner and Saleem told tales that could not reasonably be taken as true, they were elevated within their respective organizations. Their fictional vision of Islam gave them credibility…
Read More…alling itself “Concerned Citizens of the United States” distributed a watchlist with the names, social security numbers, and other personal information of 1300 alleged undocumented immigrants. (Several state workers are now under investigation for allegedly using state databases to compile the list.) The Church’s compassionate but non-ideological statement reflects a deep Mormon tradition of pragmatism as well as the Church’s evolving consciousnes…
Read More…tian Culture, “What the last few days have shown is how weak the traditionalist voice is in the C of E. When the vote on women’s ordination to the priesthood went through about 20 years ago the compromise motion allowing alternative bishops was an inevitable part of it. Today it isn’t.” Hence, I’m not convinced that the ordination of women bishops will create a schism similar to the Great Schism of 1064 that created a perment fissure between the R…
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…idential election, Playgirl, and perhaps a liaison with a woman from the D-List. All kidding aside, it is Bristol Palin that I have had the most empathy for throughout this last two years. After all, it’s hard to be pregnant as a teenager, and especially have the whole world find out about it because your mother is a vice presidential candidate. It’s also hard when that same mother puts you out on the media stroll hawking the virtues of abstinence…
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…, and began to shift their language on the purpose of marriage from a unit promoting children to a unit promoting love, support, and fellowship. In 1927, Jewish professor of Talmud, Jacob Lauterbach, famously presented his “Talmudic–Rabbinic View on Birth Control,” which maintained that as long as a couple was able to have both a boy and girl over the course of their marriage, their responsibility to propagate the race was fulfilled and therefore…
Read More…panding personal liberties, and it looks pretty recognizable. In fact, the list is more remarkable for what it does not mention: any kind of social or cultural issue. It’s more than that “God, guns, and gays” weren’t on the ballot back then. It’s that the original progressive movement took place before conservatives knew how to use cultural resentments to beat liberals over the head. (Racial resentments are another story: the progressive movement…
Read More…, should they find his advice enticing — concludes that his firm’s mailing list of 25 million evangelical voters can be used to educate people about the tea parties’ internal differences. He says that “our side” is failing to develop “messaging aimed at these folks that highlights the differences between the factions. . . . We’re keeping the Tea Party united by attacking them as one and failing to highlight these divisions which should be tearing…
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…hake. These devotional songs are also popular songs, as people continue to listen and chant them everywhere. Conclusion I think that the Fes Festival brings together an amazing group of musicians, and the space to demonstrate experimental pieces is fantastic. I would have loved to see them extend this concept and create a space for various artists to jam together. I think having the Baghdad-Jerusalem Ensemble in conversation with Dhafer Youssef, f…
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