ReligionDispatches - Dispatches From International

Mortal Combat: Risk in the Winter Olympics

Louis A. Ruprecht — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:00:01 PST

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

Orly Halpern — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Shalom Goldman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:00:01 PST

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

Bruce Ledewitz — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Diane Winston — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Anthea Butler — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:00:01 PST

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

Dianne Diakité — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Paula M. Cooey — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Sheila Sheereen Akbar — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Michael Jerryson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Shalom Goldman — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:00:01 PST

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

Laurie Patton — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:01 PST

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

Mark LeVine — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:00:01 PST

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?

Matthew Avery Sutton — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:00:01 PST

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?

‘Calling’ Rick Warren to Task on Anti-Gay Ugandan Law

Candace Chellew-Hodge — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:00:01 PST

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

Peter Laarman — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:01 PST

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

Bruce B. Lawrence — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:01 PST

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

Michelle Goldberg — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:00:01 PST

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.

The Anti-Gay Highway: New Report Details Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between US Evangelicals and African Antigay Clergy

Kathryn Joyce — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:01 PST

A new report documents the trend of evangelicals like Rick Warren exporting sexuality issues to Africa, whose clergy, in turn, support the minority antigay view in mainline denominations, weakening them. The author of the report speaks with RD at length about what he found.

Massacre of Jesuits in El Salvador: 20 Years Later

Richard Amesbury — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:00:01 PST

Two decades after the murder of six Jesuit professors, El Salvador is celebrating the end of right-wing rule and the first peaceful transfer of power in nearly 200 years.

Suicide Bombers and the Prozac God: A Review of Dying for Heaven

Bruce B. Lawrence — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:00:01 PST

A new work advancing a radical theory of the motivation behind suicide bombers is almost bizarrely off the mark. Stitching together thought and observation from disparate and often dissonant sources, Georgetown theology professor Ariel Glucklich’s book would be laughable were he not a consultant to the defense community.

Escalating Afghanistan: What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?

Peter Laarman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Don’t the clergy have a duty to challenge the march of folly in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Vatican’s Come-Hither to Anglicans: A Theological Scandal

Mary E. Hunt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:00:01 PDT

While the Catholic Church is touting its warm welcome to conservative Anglicans, it’s also a simple union of those who reject gay and women’s ordination.