Religion Dispatches
…st most intimately to see us naked. To touch us in certain places. Several years ago I lost a secure seminary teaching job for being too liberal. My academic career never recovered (just try to explain that to a search committee repeatedly asking, “but why were you let go?”). For five years I clutched to the lifestyle I knew by living as an adjunct instructor at four different universities. As I was pondering the religious implications of nudity,…
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…ngers with “salaam aleikum” rather than “have a blessed day,” we’d be having a very different discussion now—one most likely involving threats of Islamophobic violence and perhaps violence itself, as well as severe backlash against the airline. Christians, in other words, retain a highly privileged place in the American social hierarchy, and it seems to be that our best option for achieving a functional democratic future is to call out and work to…
Read More…soul) damned.” To be lost is not merely a geographic problem for marooned airline passengers, or for men unwilling to stop and ask for directions—it’s a spiritual and moral condition. These days a google search turns up over 500,000,000 hits (that’s half a billion); not too surprising for a basic and often-used term. Similar numerical results come from google searches on terms like “run” and “hide.” Meanwhile, “found” yields over 1.3 trillion hit…
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…ner monologue, God, No! is the first book to cause me to laugh out loud in years. Writing, for example, about a zero gravity ride (the “Vomit Comet”) with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, a supermodel, and some very queasy paramedics, creates an almost psychedelic mental image up front. Jillette notes laconically, “I decided to have a Cinnabon (‘You pig!’) for breakfast because I thought it might taste nice coming back up.” Not wanting to give too many sp…
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…iantly skewered “Thank you, Jesus” speeches when she received an Emmy last year, has her show, My Life on the D-List, on the network. But God-talk has seeped in here as well. This season’s Top Chef featured a devout Muslim who talked about God giving her a gift of cooking and, hopefully, helping her win. She was eliminated at the end of the first episode. Just a few nights ago, Miguel, a hoofer from Step It Up and Dance, said he hoped God would gi…
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…ginning of a journey that will have them owning a Christian theme park, an airline, a series of television stations; they will be the first to colonize another planet. Each new revelation is greeted with enthusiastic shouts and frenzied applause. Throughout it all, Jacobs’ camera captures, with stark verité detachment, the trials of the small community making the film, and dwells on the character of its leader. Who is Pastor Richard Gazowsky? Is h…
Read More…an ad in a local shop or community center. Last minute emergency? Call the airline right away to see about possibilities for accommodating your needs. Likewise, if one is ardently anti-abortion for moral reasons, rather than only focus on making it illegal, prevent it by limiting unwanted pregnancies: help ensure adequate, healthy sex education and contraception are available to those who need or want them. Work to make affordable, quality prenata…
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…of robberies and accidents. We flew to Kalispell, Montana using my United Airlines frequent flyer miles. On August 21, the Chicago Tribune reported on United Airlines workers wearing orange armbands calling for the ouster of Glenn Tilton, the company’s CEO. The workers are upset about the low wages that were agreed to when the company was in bankruptcy and the multi-million dollar bonuses given to managers who led the company into bankruptcy. Wor…
Read More…h ultra-Orthodox men interfering in your travel, you can just take another airline. If only it were as easy for female employees affected by the numerous lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirement to find a better job. *Correction: This post originally indicated that gender separation was due to concerns about women’s menstrual cycles. To read more about gender separation among Haredi Jews in Israel and in the U….
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…net that astronauts have seen. (Also, predicting Google Earth by nearly 30 years, the Earth Photo Globe plans suggested using satellite technology to zero in on viewers’ individual houses). Synagogues like these, it’s safe to say, have never been built. Whether they should be, even Friedman isn’t sure. And not just because they might fall down, get hit by lightning, or, as he fears for Gimel, leak. Friedman’s plans fit into a tradition of un-built…
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