Meet good interatheist Chris Stedman
An inverted Chris Stedman and his “awful giraffe,” which I find rather endearing. Stedman is a humanist interfaith activist. Yes, you read that correctly. Image taken from NonProphet Status, Stedman’s blog Read Stedman’s shirt (in a mirror). It says “Good (Without God).” This particular atheist cliché always makes my head hurt. On one hand, as [...]
A Christian considers the Hajj
Mamoun Sakkal, Hajj, 2000. Arabic, Diwani script. Used by permission of the artist On Friday I watched a documentary on the Hajj. For those of you who do not know, the Hajj is the annual (in a lunar calendar kind of way) pilgrimage to Mecca that is a formal requirement of every able-bodied Muslim who [...]
Buddhadharma and the vision thing
Detail of a Tibetan Buddhist mandala. Source: Wikimedia Commons This article first appeared at Religion Dispatches Two or three small pieces of this article have appeared in previous posts, so if you begin to feel some déjà vu, that’s why. A few weeks ago I spent an hour listening to His Holiness the 14th Dalai [...]
Fear of a Muslim planet
The POTUS and FLOTUS celebrate their takeover of the world with a nice interspouse fist bump. The cover of The New Yorker, 21 July 2008. By Barry Blitt. Perhaps my Jordanian friend had seen this cover and missed the satire One of the delightful things about attending seminary is that you are made to do [...]
A Muslim approaches the Qur’an and its vilifiers
The first surah, or chapter, of the Qur’an. This chapter is known as Al-Fatiha (“The Opening”). By Turkish calligrapher Hattat Aziz Efendi (1871-1934). Source: Wikimedia Commons So this week I’ve been thinking about that utterly insane pastor in Gainesville, Florida, who thinks that burning a huge stack of Qur’ans is a good way to “send [...]
Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! Or not
Christina Varga, Jesus and Buddha, Neobyzantine Triptych, 2001 (detail). I think that if these two fellows had ever met, they would’ve gotten along swimmingly. But can they get along in one person’s theology? I mean, really nicely? For years I have been a practicing Christian with a kind of background interest in Buddhism. But I’m [...]
Dream on
It’s a crazy dream, like finding the Theory of Everything: finding the Universal Theology, or some such. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, to reconcile all faiths once and for all, at some incomprehensibly deep level? Well, it’s not going to happen. A Sufi dhikr ceremony. These guys really have it going on. Photo by [...]
Back to Top | Comments Off
