Religion Dispatches
The “Religious Literacy Dictionary” in Stephen Prothero’s 2007 bestseller, Religious Literacy, devotes less than two pages to “Buddhism,” but spends seven lines making the point that “Buddhists have not been particularly active in American politics.” This notion, accurate or not, is probably the perception of most Americans, many of whom have little real awareness of the 2,500-year-old tradition to begin with. It may also explain why President Ob…
Read More…n Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (the former governor of Kansas, the site of some of the most violent anti-abortion extremism) “the most pro-abortion governor in America.” Wright followed FRC’s Perkins, who claimed health care reform efforts are not about the well-being of Americans, but a “Planned Parenthood bailout.” Americans United for Life’s Charmaine Yoest portrayed Planned Parenthood as an evil giant motivated by profit (even though i…
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…Saturday fixed-gear bikes, the preferred mode of transportation, easily outnumber cars. South of the bridge, however, Bedford passes through Williamsburg’s bustling, Yiddish-speaking Satmar Hasidic community, largely descended from Eastern European Holocaust survivors. The men wear long, black jackets and big, black hats—even bigger ones on the Sabbath. Married women cover their heads with wigs. Children, sidecurls running down their faces, pour o…
Read More…ston, we have a problem,” Engle intones in a new “crisis” video on his web site. In the video, which is filled with his characteristic predictions of the earth-shattering impact of his prayer movement, he claims that an unspecified “they” are calling the clinic “an abortion super center.” But who is the they? Engle himself. In unveiling its planned move to the new facility, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas announced, “we look forw…
Read More…publicists for the Ben Stein movie Expelled, launched a joint-venture Web site that not only promoted “academic freedom” bills, but provided sample wording for writing the legislation. Stein held press conferences and showings of the movie—which tries to make the argument (poorly) that academic freedom is under attack because science professors are being persecuted for believing in intelligent design—in states where the bills had been introduced….
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…family in the future destruction of humanity. Zoe’s life is like that web site FMylife, instead on Caprica, it’s frak my life. Imagine: you’re a teenager thinking about blowing up a virtual reality club, your parents find out you are in trouble at school and ground you. In the process of running away from home you “die”. Your dad pretends to love your virtual reality self, but instead, captures you and sticks you into a giant metal body. That’s a…
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…the eco-recovery treatment program prescribed above. The much-maligned fansite, avatar-forums.com, for example, is buzzing with suggestions on how to, in effect, bring about a kind of Pandora on Earth. One poster on this site suggested joining Greenpeace. Another announced that he would be writing angry letters to Wall Street and GM and all other corporations who are imperiling the delicate balance of life on this planet. People have quit smoking…
Read More…in Tebow family story, which was point of this ad.” Traffic to FOFA’s web site increased forty times, and a million people viewed a video interview of the Tebow family by Focus on the Family’s president, Jim Daly. Earll said the interview has a “moving, powerful pro-life message, and has strong gospel message also.” The goal of the ad, she added, “was to start a new dialogue in the country, to move us away from telling people what to think, and t…
Read More…trange thing it is to wonder why one cannot force a religion’s most sacred site to bend to one’s fleeting impulses. Because of her voyeuristic desires, centuries of Muslim practice and belief must go. One can almost hear her stamping her feet: Change for me. Because, after all, I’m an important person. But I do not visit a synagogue and expect that I, a lone person facing thousands of years of Jewish faith and practice, have any right to demand Ju…
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…. Founded in 1979, the order’s official history (a.k.a. “sistory”—see this site) begins with their resistance to conformity within gay culture: On Easter Weekend, during the time of the “Castro Clone,” three men went out into the streets to challenge the world. They went in full, traditional habits through the streets of our city and down to the nude beach. One even carried a machine gun and smoked a cigar. They were met with shock and amazement,…
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