Religion Dispatches
…ovely cotton too. I’ll be okay with these. Then, I divide these reasonably between the suitcase that goes under the plane and my carry-on luggage. Remember I have to be in ihram before I reach Jeddah. Then there are the things that need to go in a suitcase but you use them every day. Fortunately, I have all those nifty scent-free products; as far as most of the cosmetics go, I don’t use those on a daily basis. But other things, like toothpaste, I’…
Read More…ns of opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day.” In a document [pdf], entitled “Tips for the Last Minute Organizer of Those Whose Administrators Said ‘No,’” students are explicitly told that if a teacher asks them to speak they “do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time.” In schools where permission is deni…
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…Utah television station even ran a nightly news segment suggesting a link between the changes, Proposition 8, and the protests following Elder Boyd K. Packer’s controversial conference talk on homosexuality. Yesterday, the Church newsroom went on the defensive with a blog post decrying the poor journalism of the local television news crew (shocking), especially its narrative linking of recent protests to the CHI changes, pointing out that the rev…
Read More…. The National Catholic Register called the black mass “a Faustian bargain between Satan worship and academic freedom.” Oklahoma house member Rebecca Hamilton argued that it demonstrated why, “Harvard and its little troupe of elite schools are not healthy for this country.” She suggests that government research grants should be removed from Harvard and given to “non-academic organizations.” Modern-day Satanists understand that the black mass was a…
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…in reference to his network. That word, Nazi, means something. We are all free to use it as we please. It’s our right, of course. But when its use is stripped of any of its real meaning, I just ask you to remember the story of Abraham Reiss. Lamborn knows better than to drop the “Nazi” bomb into the conversation, but the “liberal bias” bunk serves the same purpose. And his staff’s investigations into the allegedly sinister doings at the network a…
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…oard of overstepping the First Amendment and infringing on their rights to free religious exercise and free speech.” Among the colleges and seminaries that spurn regional accreditation, many justify their decision by citing freedom from governmental oversight, a position compatible with the conservative mentality often dominant at such institutions. Ideologically consistent, this claim has the ancillary benefit of helping its makers dodge the cost…
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…just communists, but also “those organizations and men who have aided and abetted the cause of Communism by word or deed, whether intentionally or unintentionally.” The “entire left-wing movement,” which included the liberal National Council of Churches, “is of the devil.” Speaking at the 1962 Christian Crusade convention, after fulminating that the “Liberal Establishment” was the “greatest threat to freedom, New Testament Christianity, and consti…
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…found my “people” and my sense of belonging. It was the most thrilling and freeing experience of my high school life. The dancing, the moving, the drums, the parking lot scene where along with veggie burritos, beautiful beaded jewelry, and other crafts, I found a real sense of community. If music can be an intoxicant, then American Beauty was my gateway drug. It introduced me to other Dead albums and I devoured each one. Eventually I found my fell…
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…and his mother a Beat writer and editor.) In his twenties, he worked as a freelance journalist and founded a literary journal called Open City. “Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was a typical Manhattan atheist, suspicious, cynical, and disbelieving in metaphysical possibilities,” he writes in the opening of his book Breaking Open the Head. He blames his urbane pragmatism on his parents, whom he describes as “anti-religious” and whose unrealiz…
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…d used today to bully, circumscribe, panic, or oppress. Americans deserve better. Certainly bigotry is profoundly contrary to the values we aspire to. More pragmatically, Islamophobia is just plain bad for America. If we want to understand Islam, we should have accurate information—we wouldn’t want those who keep our country safe relying on people who have no idea what they’re talking about. If we want to know how to navigate a tumultuous Musli…
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