Bush Era to Blame for Renewed Interest in Mainline?
From the Transcendentalists to Alcoholics Anonymous, yoga and “the gospel of Oprah.”
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Meet the New LDS Face of Immigration Politics
Goodbye, Russell Pearce. Hello, Raul Labrador.
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Beloved Immortals: Science, Miracles and ‘Jellyfish Time’
A recent piece by novelist Nathaniel Rich focused on eccentric Japanese researcher Shin Kubota, who studies the “immortal jellyfish.” But what are we after when we seek immortality? And does this quest tell us more about us than the natural world?
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Do Not Have Sex with This Man
Ross Douthat wants you to have more babies. And he wants you to be married when you have those babies. And not just any babies. He wants you to have American babies—though, if you’re an immigrant, he’ll take your babies, too, because that’s really the only reason to allow immigrants to be here. And he wants you to hurry up and have those American babies, because if you don’t, we’ll run out of workers, and if we run out of workers the United States will get “knocked off its global perch.” Because that’s what’s at stake, ladies and gentlemen—American domination.
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Making Fun of Mormonism
Planets! Tablets! Underwear! When some of America’s most celebrated pundits and public intellectuals talk about Mormons, these are the images that are summoned. Ironically in this “Mormon Moment”—signaled by a hit Broadway musical, polygamous housewives on TLC, and of course two Mormon presidential candidates—Mormons, long considered quintessential “outsiders” to mainstream American culture, today find themselves at the center of the American zeitgeist. Yet it is the Mormons’ supposed theological weirdness that is the centripetal attraction.
Read MoreThe New York Times Sunday Review has a Mormon Problem
Fact check, anyone?
Read MoreAttacking Obama on Religion and Race? Worst Romney Strategy Ever.
Behold the woeful ignorance of GOP strategists.
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Meditation is Very Relaxing, Says New York Times
The kosher Buddhism presented in “Buddhists’ Delight” is basically relaxation. Not so relaxed that we forget about our liberal political commitments, but relaxed enough that we don’t check our Blackberries when they buzz.
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Eat, Pray, Kill: The Basic Brutality of Eating
When it comes to the consumption of meat, our human hands have long been dirty. This isn’t a discouragement to stop striving for the good. But a moral proposal that promises to wash our filthy fingers spotlessly clean—in seconds flat—is suspect. Because they will still be dirty. The pressing moral question, of meat, becomes: given that human hands are obviously soiled, what can be done with these polluted tools?
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Rethinking a Classic from the Conservative Contraception Canon
I was both saddened and gratified by Mark Oppenheimer’s follow-up piece on the authors of Open Embrace, a Protestant couple’s jointly-written book on why they chose not to use artificial contraception, and how it helped their marriage. Turns out, though, it didn’t work out so well for them. And I was sad to hear it. Truly.
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