Religion Dispatches
…t to see all my family before I departed. So, I’m in a good place (not the airport/airplane—more on that perhaps another time.) Professor Ibrahim and I only go back a few years. He invited me to the Bay Area to give a public lecture; as it turned out, we immediately entered into the politics of Islamic Studies in America. I was one of several speakers, but I was going to be the one least paid. Thankfully my brother said uh-uh and we’ve been buds e…
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…ual recompense. In the video message that was played before my last United Airlines flight, you expressed your desire to greet each and every passenger; you invited us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. If I could greet you now, I would want to know: were you unaware of the monstrosity that was about to follow? There, rising above the hiss of the pressurized air, as the video monitors snapped to the image of an engorged sun bursting from be…
Read More…ughter Bella was hospitalized.) Organizers said they had distributed 1,800 tickets, and the pews in the church were nearly full, with several hundred, if not nearly a thousand people in attendance. Gingrich was the only candidate to appear; Staver, the “forum’s” moderator took pains to point out that they had invited the other candidates. Santorum and Ron Paul had commitments outside of Florida. Mitt Romney, the candidate Staver and other leaders…
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…good move. When I got to the lobby another something told me to dig out my phone and check it for messages. Sure enough, I had one from an unfamiliar number. A woman’s voice said Bedi was still sleeping, exhausted from the previous day’s overseas flight, and needed to reschedule our interview for that afternoon. I called the number back, convinced the opportunity was lost. “I’m here at the hotel now, but I’m booked solid this afternoon—” “Hold on,…
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…homosexuality in the Africa is important to the future of the church for a number of reasons: It may well be that Pope Francis decided that a six-day whistle-stop tour of Africa was not the place to raise an issue of such delicacy. Debate on the place of gays in the church would require time for a more softer, gradualist approach. But the issue is a double impediment for Francis — and one which he should have begun publicly to address. It is a mas…
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…nservatives’ anti-trans bus sparks protest, arrests The latest stop on the international anti-trans bus tour sponsored by HazteOir and CitizenGo was in Santiago Chile, where police arrested 35 people after clashes that broke out around the “Freedom Bus.” From the Washington Blade: Supporters and opponents of the “Freedom Bus,” which is part of a campaign that CitizenGO, a conservative Spanish organization, has launched with the support of evangeli…
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…t there is a secret Masonic pyramid containing ancient wisdom somewhere in Washington, DC, and then compels Langdon to find it for him. All the while, we learn, the villain intends to kill Solomon’s scientist-sister and to destroy the lab where she is exploring the hidden powers of the human mind. The busy plot provides plenty of opportunity for putting Masonic rituals and secrets on display. They begin right on the first page, when we are introdu…
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…rossman is Dean of the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington D.C. and a professor of international and human rights law. The International Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex people for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC) praised Grossman, who has been honored by, among others, the ACLU of the National Capital Area and the Hispanic National Bar Association. As chairperson of the UN Committee…
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No other end-of-year list can hope to offer such profound juxtapositions: a groundbreaking female Mennonite pastor alongside an “immortalist”; the transcendent wisdom of a civil rights leader alongside one of the most hate-filled religious figures in contemporary memory. But here it is, a connect-the-dots portrait of a powerfully complicated American religious landscape, circa 2014. Vincent Gordon Harding Historian and theologian Vincent Gordon H…
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…her siblings also messaged us to say that they were being harassed via telephone, in person, and social media… Why would this be such big news in Nigeria? I believe it is because the press still wants to vilify gay men and women. They want to show that the USA is a place that corrupts the morals of children and is a den of sin and iniquity. The current political election probably isn’t helping change that impression much. The mere thought of two m…
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