Religion Dispatches
…he US Senate’s vote not to make it even a tiny bit harder for Americans to buy guns. So much high-profile violence in rapid succession prompted The Onion to cry, “Jesus, this week” (while Jezebel went even further). Such events bring to mind age-old questions of “theological anthropology,” which religions have sought to answer since time immemorial: Is there such a thing as universal human nature, and if so, is it ineluctably violent? Is all this…
Read More
…t it was launching a “two-tiered service” in which users would now have to buy their vowels. The “basic service,” Twttr, which includes only consonants, would usher in a “more efficient and ‘dense’ form of communication.” For $5 a month, users could purchase vowels too using the “premium” Twitter service (“y”s are free). “Hppy prl fl’s dy,” read the new Twttr mockup. YouTube announced that at midnight on March 31 it would shut down its site for th…
Read More…ic grounds of “self-quantification” and “Bayesian morality.” This is the proper contextual lens in which to read the enablers of neoconservatism and the apologists for new atheism. To buy the meme that the irrational fear of Islam represents a failing of Islam and Muslims is to end the possibility of constructive discourse….
Read More…tors who misuse these terms have allies in people like Lindsey Graham, who buy into their twisted interpretations, turning one of the most fundamental phrases of the Islamic faith into a “war chant” simply because a few yahoos run around shouting it after some ghastly act. When the Westboro Baptist Church says “Thank God for 9/11” and “Praise the Lord for dead US soldiers” few would argue that “Thank God” or “Praise the Lord” are somehow inextrica…
Read More…s no longer with the group, people will listen to him. Heck, they may even buy his “I was once an anti-Muslim extremist” book (which happens to fit well into the growing niche of the “I was once a Muslim extremist” category). Two serious questions remain for Robinson and for Quilliam, which facilitated his departure. First, will Robinson’s message really change? Just because he’s no longer with the EDL and claims to reject the increasingly violent…
Read More
…o understand what kinds of people make up these congregations, and in what numbers. White middle class congregations with sprawling campuses and professional ministerial, administrative, and social programs staff are not the norm. In many urban neighborhoods or among immigrant religious groups, the landscape looks quite different—in fact, the average congregation in the U.S. is about 100 members. USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture develo…
Read More…. It also depends, quite assuredly, on getting those young people to fully buy in to the doctrine, dogmas and traditions that are held by each. Which is why we are hearing a lot of pretty progressive talk about acceptance and loving of neighbors, and absolutely no actual movement toward reforming, revising or jettisoning the very exclusive and mean-spirited doctrines and dogmas that young people rejected in the first place. Which leads me to agree…
Read More
…elligence which argued that if the environmental effects of what we do and buy were easily accessed at decision points, that that would be enough. But I think that’s wrong. I think that’s necessary but not sufficient. I think we need a different motivational system on top of that. I was struck by something you said recently that there’s a fork in the road, between mindfulness for stress reduction and mindfulness for liberation and wisdom. I’m eage…
Read More…ly 11,000 strong, according to organizers, all of whom Bachmann offered to buy drinks for at her reception later this afternoon). Without ever once invoking God (although there was much invocation of country — “we are the indispensable nation of the world”), Bachmann did make reference to the split between the religious right and CPAC organizers over the latter allowing a gay Republican group to participate in the conference. “A carpenter knows,”…
Read More…an, we’d understand a Quaker grandmother’s reluctance to help her grandson buy an assault rifle, regardless of how much he pleaded or how big the occasion (birthday, graduation, etc.). It makes sense because we all agree that the money doesn’t “belong” to the grandson. For Locke, however, God gave the world to us in common, and we appropriate a part of it to ourselves for private use through our labor. (We sowed the fields; the harvest belongs t…
Read More