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Queer Religion and Community at HRC Summer Institute

…oneering effort.) But the potential is there, as Michaelson suggested, because queering means a willingness to cross boundaries and break taboos — and as religious people we must demand of ourselves the courage to dare to do so. I asked the students and mentors about their perceptions of this queer religious multi-racial experience. Mentor Kent Brintnall noted the perils of working across differences and the advantages that a religious perspective…

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No Zombies Here, Just a Bunch of Women Talking to the Dead

…made the book really pricey. In the end, Duke Press graciously agreed to house a selection of the audio on their website. So now, when readers get to the parts that talk about the music in depth, they can go and listen to it while they are reading. It is a pretty cool feature I think. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? That talking to the dead is somehow the same as seeing ghosts (and being haunted), or zombies! It is a…

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The Night of Power: Laylatul Qadri

…e, “Allah hears (and accepts) the call of all who call to Her. So call.” I use the word “call” as a more literal translation of du’a; the Arabic word for personal supplication, what in English we mean when we say “prayer.” I use the English word “prayer” for the word salah in Arabic, which is actually more like worship in its prescribed formality. But what most people mean when they say “pray for me” is “make du’a for me.” And what “matters” are b…

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Departure of the Queen

…day. Before the shaykh arrives, I continue with my Qur’an reading. I don’t use the tiny mp3 player anymore because this last juz’ includes most of the Qur’an that I have memorized myself, and this is more a review than a simple reflective read. Coming to the end of the Qur’an reading is also melancholy, and I forget why I felt I should rush just a few days ago. How will I put my friend down, except for the many occasions I use it in my work, after…

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This Narrative of Death that is So Powerful Among Us

…ot more to do about that. Dan: In a sense, that brings us full circle, because where I end Changing the Script is to talk about ways that people can resist the military script. One of them is to seek diversity within the church, because that kind of authoritarian system can’t abide diversity within itself. So when you fight for same-sex equality within the church, or women’s ordination within the church, or making a racially diverse church, you’re…

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Palin Goes ‘Hopey-Changey,’ But Don’t Call it Political

…very same time some religious right leaders have been crying “foul” at the use of taxpayer dollars to fund activities they oppose. Jay Sekulow of American Center for Law and Justice is, for example, raising money on the basis of “reports” that the developers of the Park51 community center “may seek taxpayer dollars” (in the form of tax-free bonds) to build the center. The Evening of Hope event itself bounced back and forth between efforts to promo

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In Qur’an Burning We’re All Losers

…hands. It’s as though they have assigned us a role in a cosmic battle and an ugly, loud, minority of us are all too eager to play the part. I remember when George W. Bush said about al Qaeda: “They hate us for our freedom.” I cringed then, because I know that people define that word differently, and the simplistic use of it seemed too manipulative. Now I’m beginning to wish it were true. What if our enemies really did just hate us because we beli…

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Despite Vastly Different Values, Evangelical ‘Hamilton’ Connects Secular Left and Christian Right

…America, I investigate how religious communities like Door McAllen Church use musicals to practice a form of world-building where they and their beliefs can belong. I learned that this level of adaptation is not at all uncommon among religious groups in America, and for good reason. Musicals, like many religions, are invested in the not-yet, in the could-be. With their extravagant theatrics and larger-than-life mythologies, neither is engaged in…

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‘Do They Even Read the Bible?’ — Why Exposing White Evangelical Hypocrisy is a Dead End

…gelical hypocrisy is doomed to failure, but we keep doing it. We do it because it feels good. Letting off steam against a faceless digital avatar is really the lifeblood of social media after all. It also feels good to get the adulation that comes with a social media pile on. We feel good knowing that other people saw us challenging an enemy in public. But despite the momentary good feels, not much changes. What this social media trope should teac…

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Love the Scholarship But Hate the Scholar’s Sin?: ‘Himpathy’ for an Academic Pedophile Enables a Culture of Abuse

…t, as in so many instances of men in positions of power who are outed as abusers, the story doesn’t end there. The story should end with patriarchy because that’s where the pervasive phenomenon of men abusing others begins. It’s where the violence and exploitation is nurtured, made invisible, and transformed into the normal everyone else just has to live with. What does Joosten have to do with patriarchy? As news of his child-rape porn began to sp…

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