Religion Dispatches
…r evangelicals understand that, as do a growing number of Roman Catholics. The reflexive position that it is impossible to be both an evangelical and a Democrat or a Catholic and a Democrat no longer obtains. Something’s happening here….
Read More…tween surrounding hills, there is no way to get a view by accident. Furthermore, the mosque is now built around it and so you have to make your way through this mammoth elaborate and beautiful structure to get your glimpse. You might see that mosque, Masjid al-Haram, but only after you have approached it by some distance. Especially the minarets, which are so high they shoot up taller than many of the buildings surrounding it. The hotels built aro…
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…h prizes of up to $1,000 for the best videos explaining how to “prevent” homosexuality. More from AFP: Activists on Saturday said the move will further spread fear among Malaysia’s LGBT community, as conservative attitudes chip away at the Muslim-majority nation’s one-time reputation for moderation and tolerance. Contestants are invited to submit a video clip addressing various categories including gayness or “gender confusion”, and offering sugge…
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…labyrinths, demons, angels, gods, goddesses, priests, corporate logos, and more—almost anything imaginable is cobbled together in an incredible display of bricolage. This decadent ritualism, which can be both sincere and satirical, casts the festival as a semi-religious cultural happening. Furthermore, many participants describe Burning Man as a “spiritual” experience, but deny that it constitutes a new religious movement as such. Organizers too…
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…n the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon Church: Affirmation holds international conference Affirmation,a group for LGBT Mormons and their supporters, started in the late 1970s as a group of gay Mormons meeting secretly at BYU; it now has affiliates around the world. At last week’s International Affirmation Conference, which brought more than 500 LGBT Mormons and their supporters to Provo Utah, openly gay r…
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…d. One cast member threw up in the dog costume he was wearing as they spun round and round, all on live television. At the time it all seemed fresh and, for many, exciting. The sex and financial shenanigans were only interesting because of the size of PTL’s cultural footprint. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I have written dense academic works, but this is aimed at a broader audience. It’s a story full of human drama. Many o…
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…chnology actually keep us? My generation—the dreaded millennials —seems to move more than any previous generation. Like many of my peers, I left my hometown at age 18. Though I guess I always intended to return, I’ve moved ever farther away from my source, spending years in Washington, California, Arizona. I also spent weeks or months back home in Montana, or abroad, or on the road. This mobile life, especially when linked to that naive adolescent…
Read More…edle or two stuck in the arm made the proposal for this once-in-a-lifetime trip more of a reality. Surely, it could not be anything more sadistic. Actually, I became excited after I got a phone call from the agency that I chose. Turns out, this first full business day after Ramadan was also the day that they clarified for me all the upcoming deadlines. In the next week (that is, by or before September 20), all my pre-travel preparations need to be…
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…he establishment of religious fronts like the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD) among others that targeted liberals and progressives in the mainline denominations), they succeeded in both enabling the rise of a militantly political religious right and in weakening if not destroying whatever was left of the Social Gospel in the mainline denominations and their ecumenical bodies. The liberal churches were ill-equipped to counter this assaul…
Read More…even have the courtesy to check Trayvon’s phone for his mom and dad’s telephone numbers because it’s just a black criminal’s body to them. While Zimmerman the trigger man slept in his bed, the police ordered a drug and alcohol test for Trayvon’s lifeless body. A black body that was representative of evil against the whiteness of George Zimmerman. I hesitated to write about this story, because there are many good stories about Trayvon and his pare…
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