Category: Challenges
The Times We Shouldn’t Defend Our Traditions
Martha Nussbaum writes, "Suppose Jeremiah had said, ‘the heart of Israel is corrupt utterly, but on the other hand there are some very nice people there.’” Sometimes, stating the nuance and the ... Read More
Book Review: “Broken and Shared,” by Jeff Dietrich
Reading Jeff Dietrich’s new book Broken and Shared is a meditative experience. Dietrich, a Catholic Worker, activist, and advocate for the poor, has devoted his life to the underserved. For the last... Read More
The case of Hamza Kashgari: When political oppression masquerades as the defence of Islam
The case of Hamza Kashgari has entered a new and deeply worrying phase as Malaysian authorities have deported the 23-year-old journalist back to Saudi Arabia, where he currently risks execution. There... Read More
Changing Others
The following is an edited excerpt from an interview of Swami Dayananda Saraswati by T. R. Jawahar of Newstoday, Chennai, June 30, 2003 available at http://www.newstodaynet.com/swami.htm. Why do you s... Read More
Culinary Pluralism; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Olive
I was once what adults called a picky eater. There were only certain colors I would eat. The beige family is the most reliable, and it also encompasses most bread-based breakfast foods (rainbow-colore... Read More
Creating Change or Reinforcing Privilege?
There is a very short distance between empowering religious voices and reinforcing religious privilege. There is a very fine line between saying "You can be gay and religious!", an important message I... Read More
Religious Liberty and “the Pill” for All
The year 2011 proved to be a particularly challenging one for women’s health. The overall efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, restrict abortion and general reproduction rights, and argue for a cla... Read More
Obama and the Bishops; One Catholic’s Perspective on the Contraceptives Controversy
As the public controversy over requiring Catholic institutions to hold health care plans that cover contraception has developed over the past three weeks, I have found myself more than a little uncert... Read More