Religion Dispatches
…life. Each day now, and not just on my birthday, I try to learn something new. If not some profound thing, then at least to see with new eyes even something already and always there: signs of life’s continual unfolding. A new bud opening on the tree, an apple fallen from the weight of its own ripeness, the wind blowing this way instead of that. That’s why I have endeavored to have some kind of new experience of great proportion on my cyclical bir…
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…icultural self-education program that has involved trips to the deserts of New Mexico to hang out with farming monks, Portland(ia) to learn “Old World”-style butchery techniques, and have just departed the old sod of New Hampshire again, this time for farming stints in the hills of Turkey and along coastline of the Adriatic. My story bears little resemblance to struggle of the Immokalee workers or the army of poorly-paid farm hands who are the bul…
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…BT Inclusion Project,” was just published by Intersections International—a New York-based nonprofit whose mandate, says founding director Rev. Robert Chase, is to bring together people who differ, honor those differences, and find ways to work together for reconciliation, justice, and peace. The report builds on interviews with Muslim community leaders, several scholarly articles, as well as facilitated discussions among more than 50 people in six…
Read More…ics leaning against full marriage equality, the report still contains good news for gays and lesbians. An overwhelming majority of Catholics (69 percent) believe that sexual orientation is fixed and cannot be changed by “ex-gay” therapies. When asked if sexual activity between people of the same sex is sinful, 56 percent said no. That compares to 46 percent of the general population. Dr. Michele Dillon, professor and chair of Department of Sociolo…
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…mmigrant from New Jersey,” she remarks that “one observation before I left New Jersey, was there were entire counties in New Jersey that seemed to have had huge increases in the Indian and Chinese population. I’d get on the New Jersey transit and it was very clear that when I commuted to New York in the 80s, the—the composition,” she pauses, choosing her word carefully, “of the train was much different than it was when I left in 2020. And it seeme…
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…cial statement on morality, reflects neither participation nor openness to new sources and new voices. The dissonance makes obvious that the power structure hasn’t changed a whit since Vatican II. The second, and to my lights the more egregious problem, is the complete absence of any pastoral sensitivity which ought to be the hallmark of every church teaching. A group of parents connected with the Malta-based, Catholic-rooted, pro-LGBT organizatio…
Read More…w wrote, “only Mitt Romney has broad potential appeal.” Only Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul come close to Romney in name recognition, but more than 60% of voters say they would never vote for any of them. The Pew survey also shed new statistical light on a favorite subject of media and Republican handwringing: Romney’s Mormonism. A healthy majority of Americans (68%) say that it would not matter to them if a presidential candidate was M…
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…onal—speech Thursday morning at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Manchester, New Hampshire. Mrs. Obama is often overshadowed by the better-known rhetorical gifts of her husband, but she is a powerful speaker in her own right. As she demonstrated in Manchester, she is often capable of bringing to light political realities that have been previously hidden or incoherent. In this case, the speech was indeed political, but in large part not directly part…
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…erhood is the most visible sign of a possible role for religion in Egypt’s new political landscape. There are, however, several factions within the Brotherhood, and serious divisions on strategy. The old guard does not want to form a political party, for example, but the new Freedom and Justice Party is largely made up of independent Muslim Brotherhood members, and younger Brothers have sought to form other political parties. There is also an indi…
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…I believe this is the first time the brothers have dipped their toes into New Testament waters.” Indeed he is mistaken. The Coens love the New Testament as only secular Jews can. The first shot in Hail, Caesar!, of a wooden statue of Jesus above the altar of a Catholic Church recalls a similar shot near the beginning of The Man Who Wasn’t There, a movie about a man dying for the sins of others. And let us not forget that in Miller’s Crossing, Tom…
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