War & Peace

The Trembling Voices of Those Terrorized by America's Drone Campaign

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The voices you are about to hear belong to individuals the United States may soon kill or maim – whether with clear-eyed intention as pinpoint targets or by mistake. They belong to those who have – for years – been terrorized by our country, those who continue to be terrorized by our country, those who are bereaved and fearful and paralyzed because of our country. They are voices belonging to drone attack survivors from the village of Datta Khel in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan, voices collected by the U.K. human rights group Reprieve and included in a lawsuit filed against the British government for aiding America’s unaccountable and illegal drone campaign. They are silent, trembling voices – voices we don’t hear often (if at all). Voices I recently encountered thanks to Harper’s.

Gender and Sexuality

Obama's Declaration, North Carolina's Gay Marriage Ban, and Next Steps in LGBT Organizing

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The vibrant coalitions that developed this year in North Carolina, where activists fought simultaneously against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and against anti-immigrant and anti-worker legislation, offer a vision for a more expansive and radically engaged form of LGBT organizing than the narrower struggles for marriage equality that have dominated the activist landscape in recent years. It’s a model that I hope organizers in other states will look to in this moment of renewed energy.

Gender and Sexuality

Let's Move the Democratic National Convention Out of North Carolina!

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Many of us are very disheartened that the people of North Carolina chose to amend their state constitution to read “that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.” This amendment was totally unnecessary, since same-sex marriage was already illegal. Now, however, there can be no civil unions or domestic partnerships for lesbians and gays either. It is my belief that legalizing discrimination goes against what the Democratic Party should stand for. There need to be consequences for what the people of North Carolina just did.

Judaism

Lag B’Omer & Vegetarianism: Making Every Day Count

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Lag B’Omer is considered a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar, but even a minor holiday is still a holiday and therefore worth celebrating. A great way to celebrate Lag B’Omer is through vegetarianism, as Lag B’Omer is deeply connected to vegetarianism.

art

DJEMBE & CANVAS: An Artist of “Spiritual Uplift”

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Though many of the deities in his paintings wear masks, DJEMBE & CANVAS does not. A mask would deflect, disown, and, most importantly, disguise. He disguises nothing. Instead, when we first meet him, we come face-to-face with bleached, blinding honesty. And with this radiant honesty, he inspires us to shed our counterfeit identities and transcend the living masquerade.

Christianity

Pagels’ “Revelations”: “Too Jewish” Means Not "Christian"?

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A perhaps surprising bestseller right now is a biblical scholar’s take on the Christian Bible’s final book: the “Apocalypse,” aka, “Revelation.” As someone who has done my own writing on this dramatic text (see Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now [1999]), it is exciting to see this fascinating book put into popular, intelligent discussion. However, a recent interview with the author, Princeton professor Elaine Pagels, made the hair on my neck stand up and my heart pound. Pagels’ argument seems to be that the book of Revelation is not “Christian” because it is “too Jewish.” She positions the author, John of Patmos, as someone seeking to preserve a “Jewish” way of life over against the supposedly less Jewish approach of the apostle Paul.

Politics & Society

Good advice on "how to be a true values voter"

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It is highly unusual for me to praise a piece written by a leader of the Christian Right, but Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, actually had some good advice in his essay, published in this morning’s Washington Post. He made three major points. Daly really spoke to me with his first point. We all know the issues in this year’s election… [and] there is no shortage of deeply held, passionately articulated opinions on these matters….

Politics & Society

President Obama's Just Peace End to the War in Afghanistan

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I say and say again that President Obama is a just peace president. Peace people, including myself, have a list of complaints against this president, including the use of targeted drone assassinations of American citizens without due process of law. However, I still say that, for the most part, this president’s foreign policies reflect just peace theory. Many people are familiar with just war theory. This thinking dates back millennia, and we can find it in both religious and in secular philosophical traditions.

Judaism

Weekly Torah Commentary – Aharei Mot-Kedoshim – 2 essays, Fire & Fragmentation, The Situation of Holiness

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I. Perashat Aharei Mot- Fire and Fragmentation:
In the opening of this week’s perasha known as Aharei Mot (“after the death of”), we are once again reminded of the death of the two older sons of Aharon, who died, as was narrated in Perashat Shemini, while bringing a ‘foreign flame before Gd, of which they were not commanded’. Here, where the central concern is with the Day of Atonement rites, a prologue is provided, narrating how Gd spoke to Moshe after the tragic incident, followed by the cautionary command to Aharon regarding the proper way to approach the holiest part of the sanctuary. What I intend to do in the course of this piece is detail the changes in orientation towards the Nadav and Avihu texts, how there is a change in reading from that of a cautionary and harsh tale of sin and its punishment to an entirely different reading, which regards the episode of the sons of Aaron as one of heroic but premature spiritual achievement. The text tells us, in Vayiqra 10:1, that during the overall celebration of the initiation of the Mishkan, after the people were overcome by the visible appearance of the Divine Presence at the Tent of Meeting, the sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu spontaneously took censers, added fire and incense, and offered them before Gd, despite not having received a command to do so.

Politics & Society

"Adult Clubs Prepare for RNC"

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As the person who works the Christian Right beat for Tikkun Daily, I am very accustomed to reading about how morally superior the Republican Party is and how much they support “family values.” Thus, it was a bit of a shock to see this headline in the local paper, when I was visiting my family in Florida: “Adult Clubs Prepare for RNC.” I am very glad I brought a copy of the article home with me because for some reason, it is not available on the Sarasota Herald Tribune’s website, although one “letter to the editor” mentions it. Across the Tampa Bay region, many of the estimated 50 strip establishments are upgrading lighting, hiring dancers and creating private nooks to cash in on some of the 50,000 visitors expected for the GOP convention. Long one of Tampa’s signature industries, strip clubs are preparing for the RNC as earnestly as the city has been repairing bridges, repaving streets and planting park benches downtown….