This article was first published at “NEWSPEAK,” a blog for POLITICS, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION. The recent ruling from the Supreme Court pertaining to the Hobby Lobby challenge to specific forms ...Read More
Many artists will tell you: limits foster creativity. Staring at a blank canvas or a blinking cursor on a white screen can be agonizing, but throw some boundaries around your space (mental or otherwis...Read More
I am in love with the four Olympic rings. I am in love, in particular, with the one that did not open, last Friday, during the opening ceremonies in Sochi, Russia. That closed ring shows the incomplet...Read More
Good liberals know that religious beliefs are to be celebrated, but not criticized and certainly not ridiculed -- at least in polite company. In the real world, interfaith relations aren't so well-be...Read More
Like many people who celebrate Christmas (or get a holiday for it regardless), I have just headed out of my usual climate to go see family for the time I get off of school. Like many people, I knew ...Read More
“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
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
In 2009, Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati introduced an Anti-Homosexuality Bill that carried the death penalty for “serial offenders” of the “offense of homosexuality.” Under intense internationa...Read More
Are you reading this on a computer? Then thank the guy on the left. The prosecution of computer science pioneer Alan Turing for homosexuality under Great Britain's indecency laws is a modern example o...Read More
For Buddhist Americans, the spectacle of public outcry and legislation prescribing particular genders to secular, state-ratified marriage on the basis of religion must surely be received as completely...Read More