Religion Dispatches
…ny, then, like hijabi and niqabi girls trying to be less nerdy (stereotype number one) and go off to an important college sports event (stereotype two) in search of a place to pray at halftime which they were reasonably confident was not wet with vomit, pee, or the rain. No, it really did have some funny parts. But it was just that all the college girls were too squeaky-clean—all advanced-placement honor students from middle class suburban familie…
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…there as they make their way to the Profane Museum, then the Louvre, then travel all the way to the New World. One of the historical ironies of the story I tell here is that, no sooner had the complex of Vatican Museums been completed under Pius VI, then the French looted them all. Napoleon was in charge of the Revolution’s forces in North Italy, and after he knocked off Venice he headed to Rome (the Revolution was rabidly anti-clerical in its ea…
Read More…I adore these guys. Athens-based Packway Handle Band performing an old traditional aired on a BBC travel documentary about American folk music….
Read More…big dreams require sacrifice and hard work, and that we have miles yet to travel before we achieve a place where all can enjoy security, liberty, and well-being. But this is not particular to Mormonism. This is an American article of faith, held by people of all religious backgrounds, and of no religious affiliation at all. It’s this faith that we hold in common that I will uphold as president. But for so many reasons Mitt Romney never gave tha…
Read More…ased, openly gay Muslim,” secretly videotaped his journey to Mecca on his iPhone and other small phones. “I was terrified because they reserve the death penalty for people like me,” Sharma said. Several times he had his equipment seized and video files deleted by authorities. But he persevered with both his spiritual journey and his film. “I was there making this pilgrimage for the thousands of gay Muslims who were too scared to go to Saudi Arabia…
Read More…ll continue to be easier said than done. For many other Hindu temples and the Hindu community as a whole, there’s a far longer road to travel before the first step is even taken….
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…are so much dreck. All of which made this year’s holiday offering from the Travel Channel’s food-porn hit No Reservations such a surprise. Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef and bestselling author, as well as the program’s host and guiding intelligence, has put together an hour of television that is at once a masterpiece of the “Culinary Journey Through Our Grand Traditions” genre of holiday specials, and a spoof of the same. The show pulls you…
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…rom thinking about the Mall as set of public grounds to a public space. To travel on the “ground” was to be rooted in the earth, to experience a surrounding physical landscape in its variety. “Space,” on the other hand, is something that can be rationally controlled, and managed from above; cleared and filled with symbolic experience. So instead of paths winding through groves and gardens—and abutted by vibrant urban neighborhoods—we have the symm…
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…worst storms—last year—Mayor de Blasio kept the schools open in horrendous travel conditions. One of the reasons given? Many children get their only hot meal of the day at school. We have to force kids to school so they can eat a square meal? And Zuccotti Park was cleared out years ago. A city like New York, with both ostentatious wealth and profound inequality, is part of a chaotic system. Are we using our schools to educate or to shelter our pri…
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…hat even if progressive Christian denominations were shrinking, increasing numbers of American Christians who no longer attend church would still move toward a more progressive theology, a more Gospel-based sense of welcoming the stranger, and vote accordingly. For the most part, they did not. Thus, as a prominent voice for conservative Christianity, Rod Dreher has every reason to be strutting his stuff. Conservative Christianity rode four horses…
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