Religion Dispatches
…tude of their guardian angels and patron saints. And what if Hitchens does change his mind? He has not been afraid to change his mind about things before, pre-emptive war being one. What of those people who would view a sickbed retraction not as a triumph for Hitchens or for God but as a point scored for themselves? We were right, Hitch was wrong, and even if it turns out there is no God, at least we have that victory for consolation. Is there any…
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…and presented a workshop on these students’ needs and activism at Creating Change, the National LGBTQ Task Force annual conference in February. Professor Bevins’ experience at George Fox is similar to my own very public departure in 2013 from Azusa Pacific University, where I was at one time its chair of theology and philosophy, and taught ministry and theology for 15 years while complying with, then recovering from the near-fatal effects of vario…
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…ost, though. He’s a kid from Florida who is an American citizen. Does that change anything? My Jewish teenager, your Jewish teenager would have a very different experience if he or she went to Israel to visit relatives on summer vacation. They might, in fact, not even know there was an occupation unless you told them. (Update: After I posted this, I read via the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that, apart from J Street, “among American Jewish groups, th…
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…of each other as individuals (rather than simply elements of a commodity exchange), the event defines itself as a “gift economy” rather than as a commercial festival. In practice, this means that—aside from an ice concession and a central café that sells only coffee and tea—no money is supposed to change hands within the confines of Black Rock City. Rather than paying or bartering for goods and experiences, participants are encouraged to give thei…
Read More…lain why they are OK. If this is the case, then the Francis revolution will be less a revolution and more an evolution, which may be the only way to change a church that can’t bring itself to admit it needs to change. …
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…living organisms, there will be no crime. No murder. No suicide. Spiritual change is needed,” he tells Rich. The revelation of the jellyfish’s secret is contingent upon our moral transformation. I don’t share his confidence that the secret to eternal life will be mediated to us through the body of a jellyfish; to be frank, I’m not really convinced that the secrets of eternal life will be mediated to us at all. In that sense, Kobuta and I peer into…
Read More…ts of sexuality as a conscious choice and people’s ability to successfully change their sexual orientation in their opening testimony. ‘It seems to me that you’ve raised the very issue to which the witness is going to testify,’ (U.S. District Judge Vaughn) Walker said, adding that Kendall’s first-hand account would be ‘very helpful.’” Kendall’s story — not an aberration — shed much-needed light on the dangers of “ex-gay” therapy. The abuses of of…
Read More…’m not saying this is a good thing, I’m saying it’s a reality. What might change that? A sign, somewhere, that change is possible. A tangible plan, endorsed by the Palestinian leadership, the Israeli leadership and progressives in the world community. A way forward that won’t lead to more disappointment. A way to reenergize the Israeli Left, which has cared in the past, and could care again. American activists should amp up the pressure on Israel…
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…dds with the contemporary world, one can either change Judaism, or one can change the world. The latter path is well on display in the frequent worries about the future of Jewish commitment and in the expansion of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program. Magid’s hypothesis, however, is that time is not on the side of the fretters: “The Holocaust and Zionism have arguably been the glue that has kept American Judaism intact since the Second World War….
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…we learn about Santa Claus. But as we mature, our ideas about Santa Claus change and become more sophisticated, though our ideas about God can get stuck in an infantile mode and become thereby incredible. So in The Case for God I was trying to show that people in the premodern world would have found much of our God-talk today as frankly idolatrous, and that many modern theologians, such as Bultmann, Tillich, and Rahner, would agree with them. But…
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