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The Best Books Media of 2008

By Jeff Sharlet

…that’s emblematic of much of my reading this past year as I finished my research and writing on the self-described Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. Chancey and McDonald are names little-known in mainstream culture, but within the growing world of “complementarian” Christianity which emphasizes “biblical” manhood and womanhood, they are acknowledged leaders of a lifestyle that champions the idea of husbands’ spiritual and actual “hea…

Dreaming Cyborg Dreams: Virtual Identity and Religious Experience

By Rachel Wagner

…l of our investment in our avatar’s experience. For Richard Bartle, game researcher and pioneer, there are four potential stages of identification with one’s avatar: In the first stage, the “player stage,” one “control[s] an object within the virtual world that is associated with [one]” [my italics]. In the second stage, the player identifies with the digital object, or avatar, and sees it as actually representing him or her; it is a “conduit thro…

The Case for Treating Near-Death Experiences Like Acid Trips

By Andrew Aghapour

…ul metaphor for thinking about this difference between explanation and the search for narrative meaning. We’re borrowing from Oliver Sacks, who writes about someone who had an LSD trip that was deeply transformative and meaningful. What was striking to us is that the elements of the trip corresponded to the classic definition of near-death experiences. It included a life-review scene (life passed before him like a movie), out of body experience, w…

‘Russkii Mir,’ the Russian Equivalent of ‘Blood & Soil’ Ideology at the Heart of Putin’s War, Explained and Rejected by Theologians in New Statement

By Daniel Schultz

…lar “race or tribe.” Before you run to the dictionary—or, let’s face it, a search engine—it helps to understand the background of this charge. In theory, the Orthodox world is organized by “autocephalous,” or self-headed, churches defined by geographical territory. This is why there’s a Greek church and a Russian church, and so on. In practice, things have been messier. The historical record has been that the churches of smaller nations have relie…

Capricology: A Robot is Being Tortured

By Henry Jenkins

…it a new creation. Is it human or something new and other? Maybe Daniel’s search for his daughter is futile: she no longer exists. Henry Jenkins________________ I have always been fascinated by the Voight-Kampff Test in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?”/Bladerunner. Philip K. Dick describes it as an empathy test—one executed to try to distinguish between humans and replicants. Yet he never makes clear whether it is the presence or absence…

I Am Better than Him

By Amina Wadud

…nless you count that I actually got a little teary eyed when I realized my search last night and again this morning confirmed: I have lost my little mp3 player, the one with the Qur’anic recitation on it. This is only my third year with that 1GB player which was a gift from my friend Arnold. It’s not all that fancy; that I miss it in the material sense: some unknown maker (coincidently called ZEN!: I love that too.) I think my ear buds probably co…

Transparent Season 3: The Intersectional Messiah

By Jodi Eichler-Levine

…n Transparent, Soloway turns us out of the desert and towards the water in search of that kind of space. Raquel closes her season with a dip in the mikvah. Ali and Maura join their raised hands as they address the fathomless sea. LA is a la la land of both/and: desert and ocean; rich and poor; and oh so many colors and genders of people. And moshiach? That one seems to be up to us. At the close of the stunning season opener, Rabbi Raquel’s voice a…

The New God-Fearers (FKA “The Nones”) and Where to Find Them

By Carlos Wilton

…ven’t given up on God (whoever or whatever they conceive God to be). Their search for the divine has simply broadened beyond traditional churches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEu2MH3J0qg A great many Nones are the spiritual progeny of the cheerful, well-dressed parade of Eisenhower-era churchgoers: fathers in their Mad Men suits, mothers in their pert hats and white gloves. They are Dick, Jane and Sally from the elementary-school readers, now…

Anti-Gay, Anti Catholic Evangelical Sworn In As Mayor of Rio; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…In 1970, just 5% of Brazilians considered themselves evangelical. Now that number is closer to one-fourth. Fundamentalists have grabbed power in Brazil’s Congress, forming a voting bloc that’s throttled anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws: Lower House President Eduardo Cunha, who claimes Brazil is “under attack” by gays, is trying to overturn the 2013 ruling that brought marriage equality. Jair Bolsonaro, a prominent congressman, recommended c…

A Religion Scholar Gets It Wrong on Indiana’s RFRA

By Danny Fisher

…ction hasn’t happened and is unlikely to happen. [SB 101] is a solution in search of a problem. Across the nation, the ACLU has fought for decades to defend religious freedom. But, while the freedom to hold religious beliefs and opinions is absolute, the freedom to act pursuant to one’s religion is not. The conversation about religious freedom in Indiana has revealed confusion about not only this point, but also the very significant differences be…