Category: Popular Culture
Museum or Memorial, and Why It Matters: Thoughts on Religious Symbolism
Should the 9/11 cross be housed at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum? Ultimately, it's a question of symbolic function...... Read More
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tennessee: Why Muslims and the LGBTQ Community Should Be Allies
This year, two notable controversies have been brewing in Tennessee: a proposed bill that would forbid educators from using the word “gay” in the classroom, and a court battle to determi... Read More
On the Cutting-Edge of Interfaith Work: An Open Thank You Letter to the Sultan of Oman
The barriers to authentic interfaith relationships are great. But I write to let you know that Oman's investment in the CIP Summer School is possibly one of the most promising experiments in interfait... Read More
Magical Thinking in Politics and Religion
Okay. Let me throw this out there, and then let me know what you think… The TeaParty Republicans who are seriously threatening to rain down suffering in every direction through dismantling the wor... Read More
The Substance of Things Seen
U2 and Lady Gaga--Social justice liturgically construed.... Read More
‘History Centrism’: A Challenge to Abrahamic Faiths
It was a moment of crisis for Yeminite Jews. They were being persecuted by extremists of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam and forced to convert — with the explicit threat of death if they refuse... Read More
The Harry Potter Phenomenon: What a Post-Potter World Might Mean for Religion and Society
It is in most instances quite difficult to gauge cultural and generational shifts in society through the present lens. Social movements, political or otherwise, that we have witnessed throughout the a... Read More
Two Ways Through Life: Reflections on The Tree of Life
Last week an old friend insisted that I see Terrence Malick’s recent film, The Tree of Life. The film instructs us from the beginning that we must choose which way we will follow through life, the w... Read More