Religion Dispatches
…rs getup for MMA shorts, four-ounce gloves, and a muscular frame with so many tattoos the man looks graffitied. He has a 2-0 record in the cage (his wins coming via omoplata submission and TKO) and according to TMZ, Frank even has his eyes set on fighting Jean Claude Van Damme. Back in November of 2009, I spoke with Frank on the phone. He lives in Texas and managed to squeeze my call into a 15-minute window, between his training and a “meeting,” w…
Read More
…ority of American Muslims were brown and black, as they indeed are, could any discussion of Islam preclude any consideration of race? There are of course many different types of conservative thinkers, but many of these otherwise different thinkers essentialize and reify Islam when, at the same time, they argue for the need to protect organic, lived culture (excluding Islam of course), Western society as it is, and the hierarchy and institutions th…
Read More
…t to state and local governments.” While it isn’t always clear as to how many people actually read the language of a ballot initiative, the change allows supporters of same-sex marriage to frame the battle over the initiative as an attempt to take away an already court-granted right. On August 8, ProtectMarriage.com, the organization that successfully got the initiative qualified for the ballot and is spearheading the campaign, announced that it w…
Read More
…ionships between individuals, but is more easily disseminated to a greater number of people. We experience AI as a crisis because, like the rabbis of the Talmud, we actually have conflicting needs and desires. We crave the efficiency of AI because it can save time and effort, helping us write emails, make phone calls, and recall and summarize information. At the same time, we’re seeking human connection when we do reach out, and AI fails to provid…
Read More
…ng sessions about marriage problems and infidelity, Rev Miller refers to many members “Christless past” as causing issues in their marriages as they peruse Facebook’s greener pastures. Miller’s admonition may be surprising to some (he claims not to care what the public thinks) but this is actually an old theme in fundamentalist and conservative churches. Any sort of media, movies, television, radio, dancing was seen to be sinful, drawing Christian…
Read More
…e as the model for a generation of Democratic politicians eager to disown any affiliation with reproductive rights. In delving into Clinton’s religious history, we studied her relationships with a number of spiritual mentors, including Tikkun’s Michael Lerner, who was soon replaced by “sacred psychologist” Jean Houston, who famously helped the First Lady get in touch with the ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt. Later, after Mother Teresa died, Clinton inv…
Read More
…ama came out to us, introduced the First Family, and delivered in his uncanny ministerial tone the sobering, yet timely, speech that so many of us will remember. Department colleagues, family members, and friends continue to prod me about my experience with stunning disbelief—“You were there? You were actually there!” Yes, I was. And while it was as a significant moment in our country’s history, it wasn’t the only one. There have been numerous wat…
Read More
…ivil Rights Movement, but in the last two years by Tea Partiers. I doubt many if any of the Occupy Atlanta protesters have experienced anything like that. By becoming slaves to the “process” rather than accepting inspiration, the majority behaved like the corporate scions they hope to overthrow. Not much inspiration happening when the process mimics a board meeting. What my Fred Shuttlesworth piece showed was that there wasn’t consensus in the Ci…
Read More…sday, to every registered Republican or non-aligned Iowa voter with a cell phone on record. . . . The video’s star is Molotov Mitchell, whom Cary K. Gordon, president of PeaceMakers Institute and pastor of Sioux City’s Cornerstone Church, calls “the guerilla warrior of Judeo-Christian political commentary.” Mitchell is an edgy independent filmmaker whose Illuminati Pictures delivers something akin to an animated political cartoon weekly at WorldN…
Read More…rting, too. As a New York professional, age thirty-three (who requested anonymity due to the delicate nature of the topic) says, visiting her family mausoleum provides a sense of closeness and continuity. She plans to be entombed in the family sepulchre as well. The graveyard has become “a gathering place for me and my extended family. There’s a bench. There’s shrubbery. It’s peaceful. The mausoleum has the family name on it—it’s a part of our fam…
Read More