What’s Wrong With the Virgin Mary Depicted as a Barbie Doll?
Catholic and Hindu leaders—two religions that normally appreciate religious statues and images—have decried “Barbie: The Plastic…
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Is the State a Religious Actor in Deeming Teen’s Crotch-Rubbing of Jesus Statue Illegal?
This week, controversies emerged involving both a statue of Satan and a statue of Jesus,…
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Secure Borders? Not a Chance, Senator
Ah, the fantasy of “secure borders.” For millennia, economic pressures have forced people to move toward more prosperous lands. Nothing has ever stopped that flow, and nothing ever will.
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Where Do “Sacred” Values Live in the Brain?
For the research subjects’ sacred values, the ones they wouldn’t give up on for any amount of money (they could ‘auction off their value’ for up to $100), what lit up in the brain were areas known to be involved in right-wrong decisions, not in cost-benefit/utilitarian parts of the brain. That is, we naturally go to right-wrong thinking in making sacred value decisions.
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A Holiday Tradition that Just Won’t Die
One sign of success is leaving your mark on society, making an impact; being famous brings you out of the anonymous masses and bestows celebrity, a status that affords you to an afterlife that most will never achieve; individual biographies of lives lived are more compelling than questions of postmortem judgment or the possibility of reincarnation—these lists of the dead convey profound lessons about what counts in life to the living in twenty-first century America. And nothing teaches a profound moral lesson like a corpse.
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Occupy in Exile: Sacred Space is Everywhere
People love to stay immune from the connections between the sacred and the profane, holy space and “regular” space, tented space and the well-appointed space of a mansion. They try to tell us that politics and religion never meet. Or that money is “dirty” and therefore can get away with its meanness. Deliverance from these false dichotomies is our greatest need as a country. Money is holy and just and good when used for holy and just and good purposes. It is not “dirty” and therefore the property of those naughty boys of Wall Street.
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Betraying a Sacred Trust: From Penn State to Dover Air Force Base
In the last couple of weeks we have been rocked with scandals rooted in some of the worst offenses imaginable: the profanation of sacred trust placed in the protection of children and the disposition of the military dead.
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Gas For Two Bucks a Gallon? Bachmann Taps a Pipeline to the American Sacred
Michele Bachmann, in spite of “not always getting things right” revealed a profound truth when she promised to bring back the heady days of $2 a gallon gasoline.
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The Democratic Party is Not a Religion
While there are some religious elements to be found in Democratic politics, the party as a whole doesn’t begin to approach its rival’s Republicanity.
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The Scandal of the Cross
It’s Easter weekend, and French vandals armed with hammers have given further reason for contemplating the crucifixion, or at least its representation.
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