Religion Dispatches
…ad list of crazed attackers that includes the killers at the Columbine and Sandy Hook schools. On the other hand, he was ethnically a Muslim, which automatically convicts him in some simplistic minds. And he is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) before the police opened fire on him at the end of his murderous rampage. This phrase, however, is somewhat like the English language expression, “Lord of mercy,” that can be expressed by…
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…he nor Colin Kaepernick, another vocally Christian quarterback who led the San Francisco 49ers to the 2013 Superbowl, have been embraced by white Christians the way Tebow, Warner, and other white athletes have. This is perhaps exemplified by a Christianity Today piece in which editor Mark Galli talks up Tebow’s “humble and morally upright” public persona while denigrating Kaepernick’s “pride” and dismissing his tattoos of Bible verses as “designed…
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…speaking about The Good Death at the following events this month: Mar 22 – San Francisco, CA: Booksmith, 7:30 pm. A reading with an introduction by Katy Butler, author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door. Details. Mar 24 – Portland, OR: Powell’s Books, 7:30 pm. Introduction by Peg Sandeen, PhD, MSW, Executive Director of Death with Dignity. Details. Mar 29 – Los Angeles, CA: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and The Center for Health Jour…
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…the stained glass ceiling” at the 12,000-member Glide Methodist Church in San Francisco, becoming the first woman to serve as a senior pastor at any of the denomination’s 100 largest congregations in the U.S. It was there that she experienced first-hand the expectation that she would bring her whole self to lead worship. “I have been blessed to be out because my congregations expected it of me,” she explained. “And here’s what I’ve found: Wheneve…
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…iew, she speaks to Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University and author of Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity and Religion Among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation (NYU Press, 2012). Their conversation explores a few of the ways he sees Asian American Christians decolonizing their faith from white Christianity, how that shapes their approach to social justice and their impact on t…
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So here we are again, after Newtown, after San Bernadino and Orlando. This time the rampage is in Las Vegas, with more dead, more people hospitalized, more deep trauma inflicted, but with the same shitty debate over prayer-vs-action and same despair over the potential for action being recycled. There are some differences, of course. Rather than the NRA paying $3 million to elect a senator from Iowa, we now have a president elected with $30 millio…
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…“92200.” Did you ever notice that the job of the Rock in the disaster film San Andreas was primarily to airlift women, just as “the woman” that is the true community of God will (possibly) be airlifted this coming Friday/Saturday? Lythgoe notices for you, memes it, repeats it, and posts in on multiple platforms for you to find the signs (which you, in turn, can then share). “Keep Calm and Flee to Petra” reads one meme, offering a take on a recentl…
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…aff had a Cinderella moment, all taking turns trying them on. When Velasco-Sanchez tried them on, they fit perfectly. The moment meant everything to Velasco-Sanchez. “It was being invited into that very feminine, sisterly circle. You belong here. Of course you should try these on.” To Velasco-Sanchez her time in Standing Rock strengthened both her Christian faith and her tie to sacred Native traditions. When people question her ability to reconcil…
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…ough the Senate as potentially devastating to many vulnerable populations. San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy called it a “breathtaking” assault on Catholic social teaching that will “deliberately fall apart in the coming years from market forces and ever smaller amounts of government revenue.” Montana Bishop George Thomas warned of “potentially catastrophic effects” on the lives of “children and the elderly, the seriously ill, the immigrant and the…
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…deck at home and play artists like Migos or Kendrick Lamar as she did her asanas. It became a sacred, personal time where she was able to replenish her spirit. She wanted to share this feeling with as many women of color and as many people as possible, so she began offering trap yoga classes after gaining her certification. “Most studios are upper-class white spaces where women are on vacation from their kids. Being conscious of your mind and body…
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