Religion Dispatches
…Consider yourself lucky if this happens. It’s not as if there are not only signs everywhere, but also the sacred is manifest everywhere in every thing and at every moment. All one has to do is, like Zelda, stand still at the right place or at the right time and let it “be.” But we are too busy collecting gems, and swordfighting with demons, I guess, to notice, so wham! How nice to get that kind of slap in the face, really. Awe is the response we m…
Read More…ng other religions. Of course, the idea of wearing religious covering as a sign of respect is not new for politicians: both Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice did it. For some reason, the Democratic establishment is having a hard time with simple courtesies, let alone dealing with religious bigotry. Rashad Hussain, special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Countries, has already been thrown to the wolves. He is prevented from doing his job because…
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…write the terms on yet another scrap of paper. ‘Do they go together? Can a sign of the right realism be that it leads to this religion?’” With Whitman, with Melville, Preib feels and is drawn to “their strong conviction, a faith in their writing, a religious sense.” Indeed, he is a devotee of this religion himself; his car littered, literally, with fragments of thoughts and observations, artifacts of his commitment to “a kind of faith that lingers…
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…t was too much so after talking to my editor the cover went back for a redesign. About a month later I received an email with a PDF of the new jacket and I was blown away. It was the same exact design but with a stock photo of an old house. It looked amazing, but not as good as it did when I saw my first copy of the actual, printed book. The cover just radiates and I don’t know how the designer did it, but the colors and the fonts and the photos a…
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…r queer. Love Won Out conferences, sponsored by Focus on the Family, are designed to reach conservative Christians in churches and political organizations who may have never considered the issue of homosexuality. Their aim is to establish referral networks between the churches and ex-gay ministries. When a young person divulges to a pastor or religious leader that she is queer, the church will immediately refer her to an ex-gay ministry and encour…
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…something here I haven’t thought about?’ And those who experienced it as a significant problem two years ago still experience it as a significant problem. A problem that to many is even exacerbated because the church wants to just do Business As Usual. I know plenty of LDS people who are in no mood to do Business As Usual. Even in the heart of institutional Mormonism, many LDS people remain conflicted, sensitive, unclear, ambivalent, and tender ab…
Read More…me reactions to the controversy –Newt Gingrich compares Park 51 to a “Nazi sign next to a Holocaust museum,” a Taliban operative warns that “the more mosques [America] stops, the more jihadis [the Taliban] will recruit,” and a Muslim cab driver in New York is stabbed in an apparent hate crime fueled by Park 51 hysteria. As I witness emotions on both sides of the Park 51 debate reach a fever pitch, I am reminded of my father’s efforts to build a mo…
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…the hands of the clergy, and that’s the end. I don’t mean to minimize the significance of either—for so many people, enough really is enough. It’s too painful to go back. What I’m proposing is a struggle, but a necessary one. But their significance can be exaggerated. When progressives leave their counterparts shape the Church more and more as they like it. Some have tried forming alternative Catholic communities, groups that celebrate their own…
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…t this did make me think about the phenomenon of interfaith as it is being promoted these days. First of all, this is not an idea promoted by the oppressed to invite others to celebrate their faith. It is something those already in power or with privilege extend to make an opening or orchestrate a collective. This means, those who do get invitations are usually at a disadvantage. If nothing else, it could be from the mere organizational standpoint…
Read More…ing the off-season. An update on the Oklahoma atheist billboard story. The sign reads “Atheism is OK in Oklahoma.” A billboard company has answered the atheists with signs reading: “Why settle for OK? God promises MORE” and “God is more than OK in Oklahoma.” Take that. The Oklevueha Native American Church of Utah is suing to prevent state and federal authorities from arresting and prosecuting church members for peyote possession and use. Only memb…
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