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Mortal Combat: Risk in the Winter Olympics
The exaggerated indulgence in high-risk activities at the Winter Olympics offers more than a subtle glimpse into the deeper connections the Greeks perceived between sport and war. In the US we want greater speed, but fewer crashes; higher platforms, but we don’t want anyone to get hurt. We imagine ever-riskier surgical procedures, but we seem surprised and morally outraged if they fail.
Israel Claims Holy Sites, Reignites Religious Flashpoint
Netanyahu’s decision to declare two holy sites located in the Palestinian Territories and once shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims “national heritage sites” triggers violence and conflict.
Na’vi and Goliath: Palestinian Protesters Dress as Avatar Underdogs
Many Israelis and Jews took to Avatar with aplomb, likening it to Kabbalah and turning out in record numbers in Israel. But it remains to be seen how Jews and Israelis will respond to Palestinian protesters who, dressed as the film’s besieged protagonists, aim to position themselves in the hearts of observers as the sympathetic underdogs.
John Yoo and Jay Bybee Dodge Disciplinary Action but Recall Nuremberg
Justice Department attorney David Margolis rejected the recommendations of the investigation into the actions of two Bush-era lawyers claiming that the infamous ‘torture memo’ simply constituted ‘poor judgment.’ But John Yoo’s arguments are eerily reminiscent of the Nuremberg Defense and both men still face the judgment of international law and history.
Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money
The recent firing of a progressive leader by the Jerusalem Post has lit up the international press. If Israel is entering its own McCarthy era, as many fear, it is not without American support—on both sides. So where’s the American media coverage?
Christian Imperialism in Haiti? Missionaries, Theo-tourism, and the Invasion of the Global South
The disaster in Haiti has brought attention to the ways that aid and ignorance sometimes come as a package.
Missionary Imposition: Idaho Baptists Charged With Kidnapping 33 Haitian Children
Had the inexperienced Idaho missionaries read so much as Haiti’s Wikipedia page they would have learned that the nation has a history of slavery, colonialism, and missions that warns against attempts to remove Haitian children from their home.
The Myth of “Voodoo”: A Caribbean American Response to Representations of Haiti
Notwithstanding Haiti’s Christian character, the Haitian personality, if there is one, has been nurtured by a Vodou civilization that any responsible treatment of the subject must disentangle from the Western world’s manufactured “voodoo” culture.
Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions
Preachers and public figures have often used natural disaster as an occasion to opine about God’s justice, or lack thereof. Or to make the definitive case against a divine order. But Haiti deserves to be addressed on its own terms, and in relation to the needs of those still suffering.
Jesus, Son of Allah: The Roots of the Riots in Malaysia
Rioting continues in Malaysia this week as Muslims fight for the exclusive right to the word “Allah.” But is the name of God a name or a noun? And who stands to gain politically from this unrest?
‘Biblical’ Disaster in Haiti: Pat Robertson and the Curse of Unyielding Ignorance
As people around the world begin to reckon with the scope of the catastrophe in Haiti, we offer a set of responses to what was—for those whose work focuses on American religion—a shameful expression of prejudice and ignorance from a once-prominent evangelical leader.
Monks With Guns: Discovering Buddhist Violence
The co-editor of a new book on the history of Buddhist violence and warfare explains how the notion of a purely mystical and otherworldly Buddhism—promoted by some of the great interpreters of the tradition—denies its adherents’ humanity.
Oral Roberts, Pioneering Christian Zionist
Famous for his use of TV to spread the message, Oral Roberts—friend of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion—helped to popularize the notion that the newly founded State of Israel was an indication that God still acts in history and that events prophesied in the bible were at hand.
Telling the World a ‘Big Story’: RD in Conversation with Karen Armstrong
Compassion is not just a sloppy emotional bonhomie; it requires a serious intellectual effort to learn about one another, even if it’s unflattering to ourselves. RD contributor and religion scholar Laurie Patton interviews Karen Armstrong upon the launch of her global call to action, the Charter for Compassion.
Changing the Jewish State and the State of Jews: J Street and the Future of Israel
The Israeli ambassador to the US recently joined the American right charging that pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian J Street put the very “survival of the Jewish state” into question. Indeed, recognizing the full humanity of Palestinians would require a radical transformation of Israeli, Zionist, and even Jewish-American identity.
Barack Obama: High Priest-in-Chief?
Ironically, the president’s Nobel acceptance speech reestablished many of the (flawed) Bush justifications for war. Are we, or are we not, in a religious war?
RD speaks with filmmaker Lisa Darden who helped to alert Pastor Rick Warren to the dangers of remaining silent.
Obama in Copenhagen: From an Embarrassment of Riches to a New Earth Ethic
Obama’s appearance at the climate change meeting is unlikely to change our “cheap-energy mind,” but alert faith leaders could begin the necessary Great Turning by showing their followers that conservation isn’t a sacrifice but a blessing.
Massacre in Mindanao: The Irresistible Urge to Blame Religion
While most reports focus on the brutal massacre of over fifty Philippine citizens and the religious tensions that appear to be at work, beneath the surface it looks a lot more like a good old-fashioned power struggle.
Uganda’s Radical Anti-Gay Measure and the American Religious Right
A proposed measure in Uganda would make repeated homosexual activity punishable by death. Anti-gay activists in the United States may think that it goes too far, but they laid the groundwork for it.