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…ists better than John Kerry. Gradually, that view of the ’04 results has become more common. Now my favorite pollster, Pew’s Andrew Kohut, says “it is beyond question that concerns about John Kerry’s national security leadership, as compared with Bush’s, were central to his defeat in 2004.” Yes, there is a lot of evidence that Bush won by computer hacking and other such chicanery, especially in Ohio. But that does not explain why such an unpopular…
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…nfidelity. In an age when there is no higher value than being open-minded, comedy might be the most politically subversive means to any end. Cartoons are blasphemy, comics are pundits. And don’t let any of this suggest to you, for one moment, that you won’t enjoy watching a genuinely hilarious, goofy, and tender movie. As for the plot itself, it’s simple. McCarthy’s CIA analyst Susan Cooper is bureaucratic wallpaper given an opportunity to come to…
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…he voices her support for Stop the Steal, were intended to demonstrate her commitment to stop the scourge of pickpockets besieging Mom & Pop stores. But who knows? Some people phone a friend to unload about their annoying neighbor, so maybe Mrs. Alito’s way of coping with neighborhood strife is to hoist a flag flown by insurrectionists. Could it be true? Yes. But it is incredibly unlikely—just as unlikely as misogynist-in-chief Sam Alito allowing…
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…taken it on for those reasons and those reasons only.” In the process of becoming competitive, though, Islamic banks may have lost some of the values they claim to be founded on. The theorists’ original hopes for fostering more ethical consumer preferences hasn’t taken hold in the banking culture. Bill Maurer, who has studied Islamic banks in South Asia and the United States, says these institutions aren’t much different from other banks, despite…
Read More…t any of my Lutheran, Catholic, Muslim, or atheist friends will call me to complain about this resolution, I find it just as troubling as many of the previous more controversial resolutions. As a Baptist, I tend to use Scripture as a hermeneutical screen for understanding my world and the ethical issues I face. The first text that comes to mind is also known as The Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would ha…
Read More…their tactics, she is also caught up in their web. Nonetheless, while the complexity of Badu’s lyrical content captivates the ear and the musical composition makes the heads of Badu fans bob rhythmically in response, it is not the soulful ballad that has made media heads spin out of control with (out)rage. It’s the video. “Window Seat,” fashioned after an earlier video by dance punk duo Matt and Kim who stripped naked in Times Square in February…
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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…
Read More…ct at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, told me in a phone interview that he had “replied directly to him about how he could get off the list.” Potok pointed out that the main reason Lively is included on the list is because “in our view he consciously lies about, and defames, gay people. His theory of the Holocaust is equivalent to the flat Earth theory. It’s obvious to us that he has to know his allegations are completely f…
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…his idea that God is a force of life that’s more powerful than death has become deeply compelling to many, for understandable reasons. It speaks powerfully to our intrinsic desire to survive. Not only has it shaped the Christian tradition, it’s shaped secular culture as well. Think about American pop culture where almost every blockbuster storyline repeats this defeat of death: The Matrix, Game of Thrones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars (the…
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