The Power, Meaning, and Challenge of a Statement: Reflections on Steven Sotloff
By Hussein Rashid For a CNN piece, Daniel Burke asked me for some quick thoughts on the statement released by American journalist Steven Sotloff’s family, after he was murdered by ISIS. The family’s statement, along with the comments made by Barak Barfi, who delivered the statement, contain many layers of meaning. It is not just […]
Debatable Origins
By Gary Laderman The presence and awareness of religion in the United States is overwhelming. We see so many different forms and variations; it plays a role in so many areas of social life. Religion is, indeed, an inescapable fact of our lives even though we can’t agree on what the hell it is; but […]
The Weight of the Guru: A Review of Kumaré
By Anandi Leela Salinas In Sanskrit, the term guru is defined as: “important,” “valuable,” “respectable,” and “heavy,” in addition to the definition that finds more currency in 21st century America: spiritual teacher in a general “Eastern” tradition. There have been a number of recently published works analyzing the role of the transnational spiritual guru in modern […]
The Christian cross, Texan identity, and “Tex-ianity”
By Ken Chitwood Crosses come in various shapes, sizes, and colors. They are ubiquitous in homes across the United States and pepper the abodes of people throughout the world. Odds are, you have one hanging in your home whether you are religious or not. The art of the cross is a wide and diverse […]
Show us your sacred!
Show us your sacred! Share your images with us by tagging your photos with #sacredmatters on Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr or email us at sacredmatters@emory.edu. Please include where and when your photo was taken. We will publish your images here on sacredmattersmagazine.com and through our social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @SacredMatters and on […]
LSD and the Rabbis
This article is Part I in a three part series. Click here for Part II and Part III. By Shalom Goldman The reactions to the death last month of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi may be a sign that the conversation about psychedelic drugs and American religion is moving into a new stage. On July 8th that “Old Grey Lady,” the […]
Seven Questions for Angela Tarango
In our new interview series, we ask cultural theorists about what inspires them and how their latest work challenges our understanding of the sacred in American cultural life. For this segment, we chatted with Angela Tarango about her latest book, Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle. 1. What sparked the idea […]
Halal Hysteria and Secularity
By Hasan Azad Do Muslims belong in the West? This is the real question behind the recent halal hysteria in Britain. This is also the question behind previous—and, no doubt, future—questions about the headscarf (hijab), about the face veil (niqab), about Muslim men, about Muslim women, about Muslims and homosexuality (which is prohibited according to […]
Godswap
A. David Lewis Jason Aaron, the current writer of Thor: God of Thunder comic book series for Marvel Comics, posted the following to Twitter on July 17: Aaron’s comment came in the wake of Marvel announcing plans to feature a female Thor starting with a new Issue #1 in October. Over a forty-eight-hour news cycle, mainstream […]
Seven Questions for Nathan Rabin
In our new interview series, we ask cultural theorists about what inspires them and how their latest work challenges our understanding of the sacred in American cultural life. For our inaugural segment, we chatted with The Dissolve’s Nathan Rabin about his latest book, You Don’t Know Me but You Don’t Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown […]