Category: Social Issues
A Woman is Acquired
“A woman is acquired [in marriage] in three ways…by money, by document, or by intercourse.” This is how the first mishnah in the tractate Kiddushin begins. In just this sentence alone we gain a ... Read More
What’s the Big Deal About Interfaith Marriage?
I attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I was amazed by the preponderance of sacred fashion statements (the hats!), the number of New Age practitioners from ... Read More
What We Can Learn From The Anti-Immigrant Passages In The Bible
…and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples. And I contended with them and cursed them and... Read More
“Spray Paint on the Border Wall: Challenging the Waning Sovereignty of the Nation-State” by Ann Hidalgo
In Walled States, Waning Sovereignty Wendy Brown explores the contemporary phenomenon of wall-building by nations around the globe. Brown links the desire to erect border walls to what she perceives... Read More
Religion Is All About Sex?
The Freudian take on religion, that it is all about sex, or more precisely all about repressed sexual urges, is hardly new. Nevertheless, it was somewhat startling when renowned sociologist of relig... Read More
How Paul Tillich Helped Me Matter
I recently received an email from the fine editorial staff at State of Formation informing me that I am officially a lapsed contributor and my posting account might be deleted. This is very true. I ha... Read More
Learning from the Non-Religious
I’m working on my thesis right now, which (allegedly) is a foray into theistic-atheistic dialogue. With the prodigious rise of atheism in this country over the past ten years as well as Europe’s s... Read More
Three Questions on Immigration Reform
This past Tuesday afternoon, President Obama addressed the nation about the pressing need for immigration reform. As he noted, the approaches to this reform will be quite varied in ideology and implem... Read More