Category: Social Issues
Reflections on Tulsi Gabbard’s Gita Oath by Mani Rao
Last week’s post-election news features Tulsi Gabbard, the “first Hindu-American congresswoman,” who plans to take her oath on the Bhagavad Gita. Gabbard served with Hawaii’s National Guard, a... Read More
Theology of the Body, Episode 2: The Gendering of Voices in a Mormon Sunday Choir
Like the master-signifier of reality, the hanging portrait of a prophet hovered in the air of a vacated instruction room, smiling with relief over a group of the elect youth of God’s Zion who ha... Read More
Human Bridge: Two Worlds, One Nation
The most fulfilling and reassuring conversation I had in the days following the 2012 election was with someone whom I deeply disagree with. As a liberal Jew from the Northeast, my beliefs about Americ... Read More
Politics and the Book of Mormon
Cross-posted from Historicisms. One of the more uncomfortable aspects of the “Mormon Moment” for me was seeing LDS scripture deployed against the candidate on whose behalf I chose to exerc... Read More
Food Stamp Challenge: Done. Now What?
“Mom, I’m hungry. Can I have your grapes?” “Sure,” I replied—even though I’d been counting on that handful of grapes to carry me through the next few hours until dinner. It was Day 6 of ... Read More
Reflections on Social Media and Politics
Note: this essay draws on material originally published in two posts on my personal blog, Historicisms. Having just read Mark McCormack’s post, “Dialogue in the Age of Unfriending,” ... Read More
How Do You #Keep the Sabbath?
–“The Pharisees said, This man is not from #God, because He does not keep the #Sabbath” -#John 9:16 It was a Sunday morning in April when a man named Tagg uploaded a picture of his... Read More
Dialogue in the Age of Unfriending
“Turns out over the last few days some people have unfriended me on Facebook,” I told my wife, partly out of disbelief and anger, but mostly out of hurt and disappointment. I’d never been unfrie... Read More