Have you heard of the case of the church sign that local government in Arizona is trying to regulate? It’s going before the US Supreme Court today… […]
Tag: National Public Radio
The Cow Says Moo
To make the argument with students that language and identity are deeply connected historical phenomena — i.e., that what we designate as meaning results from the coordination of a variety of arbitrarily-related sounds and symbols that are themselves each arbitrarily assigned relationships with items in the world that strike our fancy. That’s how we know what a cow says and that they have something to do with farmers and milk and horses and barns and…. […]
Do You Buy New Textbooks?
Ever wonder why textbooks for classes are now so expensive? See this story and see what you think. […]
Words Matter
This news story reminded me of teaching long ago, and trying to persuade students that “God” was not necessarily a generic, cross-cultural, trans-historical term but, instead, usually carried with it (as do all words) a specific baggage (e.g., the Christian doctrine of trinity, the role of Jesus, specific ideas of heaven and salvation, the bible, etc.) — an argument not that different from trying to persuade students that “man” is not necessarily a universal designator for all human beings (i.e., […]
The World Religions Discourse in Practice
How does the discourse on world religions work? Well, consider news stories like this one. […]
Working Miracles
Did you catch Bart Ehrman’s interview about his new book on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” the other day? No? Then have a listen. While there’s lots here to consider if we want to entertain what a truly critical, historical study of religion might look like, what a critical approach to how we talk about the past would look like — one that avoids anachronism, as if we can read back present day identities into the dim past — and […]
Your Authentic is Illusory, of Course
Listening to a radio story this morning, on a church in Denver that prides itself on being diverse and on the social/political edge — one that, predictably, aims to “create an authentic Christian experience without the pretension that can come with church” — it occurred to me just how deeply reductionist, materialist theories of religion have seeped into daily life. For, despite how dangerous these theories are seen to be by some (when they’re applied to their own lives, that […]
Lucrative, But Defined How…?
Ladies (ok, gents too, I guess): how do you define “lucrative”? Give the story a listen. […]
Just the Facts
It’s that time of year again, when the local National Public Radio station does its semi-annual on-air fundraising. Interspersed with the sometimes witty pre-taped snippets from national correspondents and hosts of its various syndicated shows, the ten minute fundraising segments mostly consist of people associated with the local station, or local listeners, talking about the benefits of receiving your news from a non-profit sources like NPR. […]