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Friday digest
New today from the Century: Gospel and pith, Pussy Riot and the Plastics, more.
Links? Links.
Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about: Occupiers and Tea Partiers together, David Brooks being funny, the women of the internet being even funnier, more.
Jesus meets the Buddha
Ever since Westerners discovered Asian cultures they have been intrigued by possible relationships between Christianity and Buddhism.
Are Muslims allowed to dance? Depends who you ask
c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The Taliban in Afghanistan shocked the world this week (Aug. 27) when they beheaded 17 people, allegedly for the crime of dancing at a mixed-gender gathering....
Prominent priest blames sex victims, says first-time abusers shouldn't face jail
c. 2012 Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) The Rev....
GOP ticket signals religious shift
By naming devout, conservative Catholic Paul Ryan to be his running mate, former governor Mitt Romney, once a Mormon bishop, did more than ensure that the U.S....
Romney: Releasing tax returns would publicize his church tithe
Mitt Romney said recently that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone would see how much money he and his wife Ann have donated to the Mormon church, a...
Adventists press issue of women’s ordination
Two U.S. regional groups of the Seventh-day Adventist Church have women pastors and are moving faster than the worldwide church on the issue....
Post-factual politics
James Bennet's post from earlier this week made an important and timely point. First he observes that a lot of political reporting has taken a turn from the destructive banality of he-said-she-said false equivalency stuff and toward playing an explicit fact-checking role. (I'm among those who welcome this enthusiastically.)
Then he poses this somewhat chilling question: "What if it turns out that when the press calls a lie a lie, nobody cares?"
Bennet was talking about the Romney campaign's ads misrepresenting the Obama administration's policy on welfare-to-work. But his post seems all the more relevant today, in the wake of Congressman Ryan's speech at the RNC last night.
Thursday digest
New today from the Century: Jesus and the Buddha, work and leisure, more.
Swallowing the Sea, by Lee Upton
Upton is an award-winning poet, novelist and critic who here writes about the writing enterprise....
Connections that last
Photographer Noel Vicentini captured the end of the Shaker paradise, Eden going to seed. He seemed especially interested in places of joining.
Lutheran federation to assist Syrian refugees in Jordan
August 29 (ENInews)--The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) said on 29 August that it is joining efforts to respond to the growing influx of Syrian refugees...
The liberal fundamentalist
One hundred years ago this summer, a fundamentalist Christian stood before the convention of a major political party and offered an impromptu resolution. He ended his impassioned speech by quoting words of Jesus. The speech was not what you might expect.
Twice as good and half as black
The must-read article of the last week or so is without question Ta-Nehisi Coates's essay on race, racism and Obama's presidency. Along with being a magnificent writer, Coates is a sharp observer of the cultural and political ramifications of America's original sin.
Wednesday digest
New today from the Century: Stephanie Paulsell on the Shakers, David Heim on William Jennings Bryan, more.
How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done About It), by John C. Knapp
John Knapp tells the story of a businessperson short on cash, with a client who can't pay his bill. For Knapp, this case study highlights the great divide between work and faith.
Sunday, September 9, 2012: Mark 7:24-37
On August 2, 2010, a column in the New York Times struck a chord with a number of my colleagues—by the end of the day it was posted on the Facebook pages of more than 30 of them....
Faith groups in Pakistan seek release of girl accused of blasphemy
August 28 (ENInews)--A bail hearing is set for 28 August in Islamabad in the case of a girl charged with blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Qur...