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RDPulpit: To the ‘Furiously Raging’ Religious Right

…used were nearly all rules and regulations laid down in Levitical holiness codes, in wrath-filled passages from the prophetic literature, and in the Pauline and pseudo-Pauline literature. This heavy reliance on rule-bound scriptural teaching works really well for wannabe moral enforcers, but to recall the words of our Saviour (himself quoting Isaiah): “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” I am no trained theolo…

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Into the Darkest Moment of a Dark Year Comes the Saturnalia, a Time for Drinking, Swearing, Gambling, and the Circle of Life

…god belonging to an era before civilization constrained men with societal codes and rigidities. During the Saturnalia, they break free of restrictions, provided that order (Cosmos) be restored at the end of the festival. There’s nothing more appropriate to reflect on in a pandemic year of grief which has forced us to reconsider fragility, finitude and time. During these shorter days and longer nights, as we may or may not put up a Christmas tree…

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What the USCCB’s New “Religious Liberty” Initiative Took from Evangelicals

…and even some Eastern Orthodox Christians joined hands in protecting their freedom from the scourges of LGBT rights, reproductive freedom, feminism, and secularism. At the time, a handful of Catholic bishops signed the document. Now the USCCB seems to have been motivated by its success: it is, after all, touted widely at conservative and religious right gatherings and now claims nearly half a million signers. Religious liberty, the document procla…

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An Open Letter to Rabbi Dov Linzer on Modesty and Jewish Law

…ort their position by reading closely and deeply the same Talmud and legal codes that you do. Their community embodies an extreme yet also consistent rendering of Judaism founded on the Talmud and the legal tradition it generated. It is true that their egregious behavior steps beyond any acceptable norm. But their more general interpretation of Jewish law does not. Shouldn’t recent incidents serve to show that your anti-misogynist Orthodoxy, which…

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A Moral Galaxy: War and Suffering in “Star Wars: The Old Republic”

…t waging a just war. “This game helped me understand the different ethical codes to a greater degree,” comments one. “Given that I attempted to play each class in a specific manner, I found it interesting how certain stories ‘rang’ with me, and others were discordant. It’s an interesting game, and I would almost advocate using it for educational purposes in high school.” If each player can acquire an embodied, lived experience of cultural ideals t…

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Inventing “Jihad”

…non-Muslims in order to expand Muslim realms while observing humanitarian codes of conduct against civilians is more or less accepted as a given, even by many specialists of Islam. The proof-texts invoked in support of such a position are medieval Islamic legal texts, which frequently did list such a requirement as part of the duties of the Muslim ruler and established furthermore an elaborate code of conduct for initiating war. And this is where…

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Robbing Peter to Give Charity to Paul: The Dirty Secret Behind American ‘Giving’

…th equity so that children’s chances in life no longer depend on their ZIP codes, universal child care support for working families, and the progressive taxation needed to pay for all of it. Truly generous people will demand social systems in which all can flourish. Utah, are you listening? More than 50 years ago, MLK dismissed the idea that private charity can ever substitute for public justice. Dr. King said that when we Americans finally get ou…

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And the Violent Bear It Away? Disciplined Nonviolence and the Coming Election Emergency

…f racist domination following the official overthrow of slavery: the Black Codes, convict leasing, widespread lynching and white terrorism, Jim Crow segregation, and ostensibly “race neutral” 20th century approaches to policing and mass incarceration that are, in fact, saturated with anti-Black racism from top to bottom. Every decent person understands how today’s challenges to every expression of white supremacy mark a long-delayed and long-suppr…

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Barbara Ehrenreich’s ‘Wild God’ is Not Here to Help

…nal issues, she tells us that grew up in a family where love was not given freely or unconditionally, with a hypercritical, withholding, unpredictable, at times vicious mother—alcoholic and suicidal. She adored her hard-drinking scientist father, following in his footsteps to become a scientist herself. Desperate to escape, she intellectualized her alienation, running into the arms of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Sartre and Camus, scientists and phil…

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Zen and the Art of the Sex Scandal

…r life, respect for property, sobriety, etc. all seem identical to Western codes of conduct, they arise differently in Buddhism. The Decalogue was revealed by divine commandment. In Buddhism, there’s no creator deity. Nor is there any central Buddhist institution, such as a Vatican. Rather, in establishing one of humanity’s first monastic orders, the Buddha set forth a matrix and process of conscious behavior (vinaya) based on actual conduct. As s…

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