July 2011
46 posts
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Using Harry Potter to Explain My Religion
by Eric Nelson, guest contributor
Still frame from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
In addition to providing me with a least a decade’s worth of entertainment, J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series has also given me a fresh and hopefully meaningful way to explain my not-always-easy-to explain religion to others. And given that practically half the world has either read or seen...
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“Whole Foods has become the first prominent supermarket chain to run a Ramadan...”
– —from Neal Ungerleider’s piece “Whole Foods Celebrates, Monetizes Ramadan” in Fast Company
~reblogged by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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“For touring, my Kindle is just about the greatest thing I own. I have a few...”
– —Moby lays out his media diet. Read the rest at The Atlantic Wire.
(via theatlantic)
~reblogged by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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Where Are the Poor in This Debt Ceiling Debate?
by Debra Dean Murphy, guest contributor
It’s by turns infuriating and farcical.
It has become increasingly clear that the debt ceiling and deficit reduction dramas are manufactured emergencies driven by electoral politics, though the consequences of inaction are very real. The desire to stay in office, to hold on to this or that position of leadership, to stick it to one’s despised...
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“I’m pretty much agnostic at this point in my life. But I find atheism just as...”
– —Vince Gilligan, creator of the award-winning television series Breaking Bad
Now in its fourth season, the show traces the moral evolution of Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston), a middle-aged chemistry teacher who becomes a meth maker after he’s diagnosed with lung cancer....
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“Reich’s piece brings back some searing memories, with (for me) an...”
– — Fred Child, host of Performance Today
The classical music aficionado and public radio host weighed in on his show’s Facebook page with a brief perspective on the new cover art for the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich’s latest work, WTC 9/11, from Nonesuch Records. Released...
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Ramadan 2011: The Blessings of a 16-Hour Fast and...
by Ayman Amer, guest contributor
(photo: Mohammad Khedmati/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Ramadan this year starts Monday, August 1st. Every year it comes 11 days earlier because Muslims follow a lunar calendar. A lunar year is only 355 days long. So my Ramadan comes sometimes in super freezing Iowa winters and sometimes in hyper sizzling hot and humid summers.
When Ramadan comes in winter. It is...
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Anonymous asked: I'm curious what your thoughts are on the cacophony of End Times predictions out there today. It would be interesting to do a show featuring theologians and scientists on this subject. Perhaps something to calm the storm?
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WatchThe Dismantling of Lives: Coming Through for Someone Else
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
“It’s a prime time of my life, and I basically gave it away.”
Julie Winokur uprooted her husband Ed Kashi and two children from San Francisco, California to New Jersey to take care of Herbie, her 83-year-old father with dementia. This film is an intimate portrait of a family who is...
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Haile Selassie I: The Lion of Judah and King of...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
A Rastafarian holds the former Ethiopian flag with the golden crowned lion, a version used during Emperor Selassie’s reign. (photo: Aaron Maasho/AFP/Getty Images)
When social activist Marcus Garvey said ”Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the Redeemer” in 1920, Rastafarians found their answer a decade later in the...
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Are Theological Conversations on Homosexuality...
by Jared Vázquez, guest contributor
At Wallingford United Methodist Church in Seattle, Washington, the pastor invites everyone to the communion table on Easter Sunday. (photo: © Michael Spencer/Flickr)
I admit that I was taken by surprise when I saw this tweet summarizing theologian and biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann as saying that theological conversations about homosexuality are futile....
Anonymous asked: Which episode includes a general reading a letter about standing down--demonstrating the power of powerlessness?
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“If you’re conflicted about whether to spend money on a material good (say, a...”
– —from Gary Belsky and Tom Gilovich’s article in Time, “Want Happiness? Don’t Buy More Stuff — Go on Vacation”
This one article is responsible for convincing my wife to take a road trip to Montana in a couple weeks. After days of debate, I’ve learned that Belsky and Gilovich carry more...
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“The better we understand human psychology and neurology, the more we will...”
– —J. Anderson Thomson, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia and a trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and Clare Aukofer, a medical writer, have struck a nerve with their op-ed “Science and Religion: God Didn’t Make Man; Man Made Gods” in...
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