I had high hopes that President Obama would do more outreach among US Muslims. There are only 24 hours in a day. I get that. But I was hoping that we’d see a more overt form of engagement. Perhaps the political climate both pre- and post-election preclude that kind of “innocent” presidential appearance at a [...]
Browsing the archives for the Politics category
A discussion of Christianist militia groups
13 Apr, 2010 in Church and State, Politics, Religion Blog, ViolenceI’m not up on my contemporary American eschatology, but some of the comments here pinpointed some rather nuanced, for me, distinctions. The most startling comment was by Prof. Butler from Univ. of Pennsylvania when she made the distinction between merely “believing” in x and the believing that makes x come to pass. Here’s a video [...]
Another epidemic it seems. This time of “genuine” suicides as opposed to “suicide bombers”. “Young people see this as a way to give meaning to what seem like meaningless lives,” said Sudhir Kakar, a prominent psychoanalyst and novelist who has written extensively about mental health in India. “It is a way to become a hero, [...]
Maybe it would be a good idea for California political candidates to take SFSU’s PHIL 502 World Religions course. Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO and current Republican candidate for California governor, made a Passover faux pas. Share/Bookmark
Super good news re Iraqi March election: Sunni leader *will* participate. NY Times: http://nyti.ms/cC43bE Share/Bookmark
Today a student objected to my calling Iran a dictatorship. “It is a democracy,” he said. He did have a point. There are plenty of other places worse than Iran. Travel plans? Nope. I’ll stay right here in greatly flawed California, in the equally “challenged” US of A. There doesn’t seem to be any question [...]
Someone told me that they were in town. They were protesting at the Twitter HQ. Glad to see the Bay Area respond with an “in kind” protest. Apparently they were going to protest in front of the theater where Fiddler on the Roof was being performed. Sometimes I wish I could get inside their twisted [...]
In case you need to see it with your own eyes. I probably should spend a moment figuring out why this surprised me. I’d feel the same way if I saw Sharpton and the Pope. There is more to Sharpton that his political showboating and hyberbole. Sharpton has used his position as a religious leader [...]
Over at Religion Dispatches, there’s an assessment of the current trial and the absence of “religion” by Candace Chellew-Hodge. Nancy Cott, a Harvard University historian, dismissed the notion that marriage should be reserved for procreation. When Cott was cross-examined, “Jesus” makes an appearance. What follows is a summary of what transpired in court. The summary [...]
Martin Luther King once said “11 o’clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week … And the Sunday school is still the most segregated school.” Here’s a article from Time magainze that looks at how megachurches may be reversing the status quo. But in some churches, the racial divide is beginning to [...]