Religion Dispatches
…e, “Allah hears (and accepts) the call of all who call to Her. So call.” I use the word “call” as a more literal translation of du’a; the Arabic word for personal supplication, what in English we mean when we say “prayer.” I use the English word “prayer” for the word salah in Arabic, which is actually more like worship in its prescribed formality. But what most people mean when they say “pray for me” is “make du’a for me.” And what “matters” are b…
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…napped with my iPhone while on a trip to southern Ohio. I didn’t intend to use it for the book; I just thought it was a great picture. But as I considered cover ideas, that image of a decaying church perfectly embodied what I was trying to say in the book. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? How do you even narrow down a question like this? Fiction? Non-fiction? Historical? Contemporary? Other than naming my all-time favorite novel…
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…has been a surprisingly vibrant discussion surrounding the potential redundancy of the phrase ‘frozen tundra.’ The New York Times’ sports pages reported on Lake Superior State University’s eagerly awaited List of “Words Banished From the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness, 2003 edition,” which banished ‘frozen tundra’ for being redundant (missing the irony, perhaps, that this isn’t a word, it’s a phrase). LSSU’s 2004 edit…
Read More…’ ability to communicate with the public and encouraging Church members to use this time to dialogue candidly with friends about our faith, whether in person or by social media. Members should be certain to declare their faith in Jesus Christ, said Perry. As someone who writes about Mormonism for a general public, it’s my experience that most people actually know little about what we believe—especially how we relate to mainline Christianity. The M…
Read More…dering as Wallis and a few others prepare to push Congress and the White House for further concessions. “[The president’s] commitment to these principles,” said Wallis, “means we can now work together to make sure that they are consistently and diligently applied to any final health care legislation.” For Wallis, that means that “no person should be forced to pay for someone else’s abortion and that public funds cannot be used to pay for elective…
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…ightly charges against priests who have taken a vow of celibacy and are accused of sexually abusing children and misusing their power. Although it is not yet clear how Pope Benedict XVI will deal with these charges in the long run, his recent homily referring to the “petty gossip of dominant opinion” glossed over the seriousness of this scandal and what role, if any, he had in how the situation was mishandled at the Vatican, reminding his follower…
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…myth. The cost of obsession: Ben Starks’ obsession with the one true God caused the death of hundreds. If Clarice Willow’s veiled glances reflect the same commitment we can expect lots of righteous appeals for a rectitudinous monotheism in place of a dithering polytheism. But at what cost? The slinky headmistress is less concerned with the morality of Ben’s suicide bombing than the timing. I’d vote for less talk and more action on this score. I’m…
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…t of powerhouse programs like Florida State and Auburn. Some are there because they used drugs. One was charged with burglary. Another punched a woman in a bar. Football players spout self-serving platitudes all the time. “No relationship is perfect” is how Ray Rice explained the video of him striking his then-fiancee in an elevator in 2014. But Johnson isn’t trying to justify himself. He doesn’t use our shared imperfection to paint over his sins….
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…n were being threatened by the possibility that people of any gender could use any bathroom. More than a decade later, not only is the T still frequently being dropped, but that will remain the case as long as we continue, from bathrooms to ID cards, to organize ourselves around the gender binary. Writing for Type Investigations, Sarah Posner argues that bills banning medical care to trans youth are rooted in what she calls “baseless distortions o…
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…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…
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