Religion Dispatches
…hort. “I get this criticism a lot,” Maher told The New York Times. “It’s a pet peeve of mine, because I’m confronted with this notion that ‘Oh yes, you only go after the extremists, and by doing that you make religion look silly.’” But, Maher counters, “Anyone who’s religious is extremist.” While such a black-and-white view of faith may infuriate some, I’d be happy to hear Maher out. But by the time he exhorts moderate religious people to realize…
Read More…of tragedy when people jump all over it to score points for whatever their pet cause is. It’s something like schadenfreude, but not quite, because it does not involve rejoicing in the bad fortune that falls upon people we don’t like. Rather, it’s a matter of rejoicing when someone whom we see as representing “the other side” does or says something stupid or repugnant or downright evil, because it gives us a proverbial poster child to point to when…
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…, though I’m pretty sure President Obama hasn’t read the book, his foreign policy is consistent with the moral of the story. In his Cairo speech he emphasized America’s respect for Muslims. And his attempt to get Israel to completely stop settlement activity is a way of making Palestinian Arabs feel less threatened. Both things, if experience is any guide, should help dampen religious radicalism. Is there anything you had to leave out? Yes. Mainly…
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…nuous human culture is with the culture of our ape cousins. Yes, they are very much like humans—and that is precisely why it is a bad idea to keep them as pets. Would McDowell advocate that we should keep pet humans? I certainly hope not….
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…mpermanence. The temple has also come to reflect a growing national trend: pet memorials. Burners left loving memories of dogs, cats, snakes, birds, and a turtle. Two huskies stared out of an elaborately carved wooden frame; a photo collage was titled “R. I. P. Boomer,” and a life-size cut-out of a dog was dedicated to “Borealis: friend to all, great and small.” Every year since the first temple in which they were largely absent, memorials to pets…
Read More…that disillusionment with the church in the wake of Humanae Vitae is some pet issue of mine and not, as Garry Wills called it “the most crippling, puzzling blow to organized Catholicism in our time.” I get that some male observers of the church don’t appreciate how singularly frustrating the Catholic teaching on contraception is to women. But it’s more than that. Its been uniquely destructive to the church by creating a culture of hypocrisy that,…
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…nervous dog with a bad allergy, I should be given one of those Elizabethan pet collars (you know, the “cone of shame”) so that I could just leave the problem well enough alone. But I didn’t want a cone of shame. I was convinced that I could mastermind some sort of solution. I approached this as I tend to approach most problems—I tried to think my way out of it, as thinking (for me) is almost preferable to breathing. I did research, detective work….
Read More…the hateful signs sported by NOM supporters. Now, NOM is upset that their pet issue may be dropped altogether by the Republican Party. They moan on their blog: Prediction: after (Ken) Mehlman announced he’s gay, you will see an increasingly coordinated campaign by certain GOP establishment elites to jettison the marriage issue, an issue about which the majority of Americans—and 80 percent of Republicans—agree. As proof, they point to an article i…
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…proved health care (i.e. contraceptives) as part of their health insurance policy. A rabid opponent of abortion, Johnson referred to abortion as a “holocaust” in a 2005 article for the Shreveport Times: “The prevailing legal philosophy is no different than Hitler’s. Because the life of an unborn child […] may be difficult or inconvenient or even costly to society now means it can be terminated. […] During business hours today, 4,500 innocent Ameri…
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…d people on the campaign trail. And with Pence taking the lead on domestic policy (at least on the transition team), and serving as Senate President, it’s not far-fetched to suspect that this politician’s pet issue of religious freedom will be wielded as a sword in Trump’s America (to the Trump family’s benefit, of course). Certainly, any hope of a kinder, less discriminatory FADA has evaporated with the red tide that swept Washington on November…
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