Religion Dispatches
…regularly opining that God is punishing America for some sins. Only their list of sins for which America deserves punishment is different from those of Wright. In the words of Christian fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, “I really believe the pagans, the abortionists, the feminists, the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, the People for the American Way, all of them who tried to secularize America, I p…
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…o much baggage. When you use it, everybody thinks of this theistic, personalistic, transcendent God—no, I don’t buy that. The way I always define the divine is the rising and passing away that does not itself arise and pass away or, as I have already suggested, the infinite creative process. There isn’t a divine creator, but creativity is divine. Creativity is an emergent process, and creation always entails destruction. I’ve rethought this in ter…
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From the pantheon of Greco-Roman names in the cast list to the hard-drinking antics of the pagan crew, there is a distinct Dionsysian vibe on the critically adored Battlestar Galactica, now entering its final season on the Sci-Fi channel. There’s no character named Dionysus, it’s true, but we have straight-arrow flyboy Apollo and Cylon turncoat Athena and her existentially tormented human lover, Karl Agathon. Then there’s the simple fact that the…
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…ade a majority of Californians to heed one element in an otherwise obscure list of purity codes in Deuteronomy—and that Jesus’ preaching in the gospels isn’t really complete without Paul’s finger-wagging in Romans—the stitching that holds together the disparate parts of the Good Book will have subtly but irrevocably loosened, along with the Bible’s centuries-old grip on American public life. Of course, religious conservatives can’t frame their pro…
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…e told, in Tunisia, “women [are] not required to cover their heads”. For a list of the Arab countries that do not mandate that women cover their heads, how’s this?: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, and Bahrain. That’s 15 countries, including the most populous, Egypt. And while I’m not sure about The Sudan, there are of course strong restrictions around w…
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…id Horowitz, and Laura Ingraham, most of which have made it to best-seller lists. In a 2002 essay in The American Prospect titled “Hillary Was Right,” journalist Nicholas Confessore characterized Regnery as the “lifestyle press for conservatives, preferred printer of presidential hopefuls, and venerable publisher of books for the culture wars.” Since the advent of the Iraq War, Regnery has added defense of the Bush administration, promotion of the…
Read More…; two same-sex kisses; some rough and crude language; and two uses of profanity.” In addition to their reviews, the USCCB Office of Film and Broadcasting also offer Top Ten Lists from each calendar year beginning with 1965. It is probably safe to say that Hamlet 2 will not top the 2008 list….
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…nd charities and lives on the remaining 10 percent. Unlike flashy televangelists, he has no interest in large homes, yachts, cars; in fact, he won’t even go on television because, he has said, he wants to support local ministers, not compete with them. He has provided “purpose-driven” curricula and other materials to over 25,000 churches, and hundreds of thousands of pastors have attended seminars or conferences with him and other Saddleback Churc…
Read More…ite supremacist websites and blogs, hundreds of comments have been posted “promot[ing] centuries-old stereotypes and conspiracy theories alleging Jewish control of the economy, banking and the government,” YNetNews recently reported. The ADL noted that a number of posts “have gone so far as to resurrect Nazi-era propaganda with threads such as ‘The Jewish Problem’ or comments such as, ‘The Final Solution 2?.’” ++++++++++ Christian Professor Concer…
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…et traders gyrate between exultation and despair as corner-office titans enlist the administration’s Objectivists to refill the trillion-dollar cookie jar they’d raided and stocked with imaginary cookies. Has anyone counted the dead in Iraq? Lapel pins, real Americans, water-boarding and what the frak is a credit-default swap anyway? A wise old Zen master boiled the Dharma down to this: Don’t deceive yourself, don’t make excuses and take responsib…
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