Religion Dispatches
…likened to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly—hence, the use of butterfly patterns in Lady Gaga’s wardrobe. VC goes on to analyze Lady Gaga’s logo, a headless—and thus mindless—female figure riven by a jagged bolt of lightning. He also notes Lady Gaga’s penchant for hiding one of her eyes, evoking one of the most salient Illuminati symbols, the single “All-Seeing Eye.” Another sinister image portrays Lady Gaga as a mannequin, wit…
Read More…oneering effort.) But the potential is there, as Michaelson suggested, because queering means a willingness to cross boundaries and break taboos — and as religious people we must demand of ourselves the courage to dare to do so. I asked the students and mentors about their perceptions of this queer religious multi-racial experience. Mentor Kent Brintnall noted the perils of working across differences and the advantages that a religious perspective…
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…n order to affect the election. On the state level, too, religion is being used to promote discrimination: Proposition 8 in California seeks to annihilate gay marriage rights, though they have been confirmed by the California Supreme Court, by amending the California Constitution. The Prop. 8 campaign has effectively played on fear and the ingrained religious notions of marriage that most people retain, no matter what religion—or even lack of reli…
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…children to “thrive,” it’s imperative that they grow up in a (religious) household of their parents, a man and a woman, joined together in marriage, because “if no one’s having babies, what does this say about the state of our nation?” It seemed incomprehensible to all panelists that some women might not actually want to have 2.1 children—or any children at all. Waters points out that while national conservatives should be indeed happy that pro-na…
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…be lonely. You may experience isolation as you go up the career ladder because you have fewer peers in general and certainly fewer peers who are women. Serene Jones: Because of how they are socialized, some women may lead differently than men—and people engage you differently because you are a woman. There are different ideas about you, and people choose to interact with you differently. On that score, we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface as…
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…octrine may likely reconsider those beliefs as technology advances and its use becomes accepted in everyday life, Campbell said. Even if official church policies don’t change, churchgoers often do. The Catholic Church’s opposition to contraception hasn’t changed, but Catholics in the United States use birth control and have abortions at about the same rate as non-religious people, Campbell said. And he explained that in the dozen years physician-a…
Read More…n the hospital. While there, he hears about karma and decides that he will use this principle to turn his life around. He puts together a long list of wrongs committed and begins the process of correcting for past, harmful behavior. The numerous awards won over four seasons suggest something of the show’s appeal. Earl, an unlikely convert to ethics of reconciliation, stumbles through various attempts to reconcile self-interest and the needs of oth…
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…e Trump adviser Stephen Bannon. Drawing his title from the triple brackets used online by white supremacists to identify individuals who are Jewish (or whom they think are Jewish), New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman used the symbol in an act of reclamation and resistance against ascendant antisemitism. Drawing from his own experience, as well as analyzing the rise in hate crimes and speech against Jews both internationally and in the United St…
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…his point, Wilson, a slavery apologist who has thrown his support behind abusers, claimed: [I]t used to be that the sexually troubled had to keep their kinks hidden away in the closet, but now the conservative Christian has to keep their virtues hidden in the recesses of the closet. “Appeal to Heaven” jokes—with democracy as the punchline Attempting to inject some levity into his remarks, Wilson joked about the recent revelation that an insurrecti…
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…something different now—not just my own blood, but a larger communion of the self in the world. I write every morning in my kitchen, stirring my coffee with one of Grammy’s spoons. I’ll never use it in a grand candlelit dinner with my children and their children. It’s for everyday use. I am the end of my line. But also, the beginning of another kind….
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