In the News: It’s grim, but at least there’s a GIF
A round-up of recent religion news. Continue Reading →
Tag: anthea butler
In the News: Profiling, Prince, Peaceniks and more!
A round-up of recent religion news. Continue Reading →
In the News: Racism, Ramadan, Romanian Witches and more!
A round-up of the week’s religion news. Continue Reading →
In the News: Emanuel A.M.E., Encyclicals, Etsy, and more!
A round-up of the week’s religion news. Continue Reading →
A Simple Dinner
By Anthea Butler
I used to hate Valentines day, until a dinner changed my mind.
After a particularly ugly split from another fool right before Valentines Day, a friend in grad school saw my distress, and invited me over for dinner. Our friendship was complicated. He made us a spectacularly simple dinner. I can still remember the tastes on my tongue. I fell in love. It was never consummated. Years later, I can still taste it. It was as if our feelings had merged into the food.
Whatever love is, I think you can taste it. With the right person, it is like touching the divine.
I Love You, I Do.
We asked our Near and Dear to tell us something about today, the day when we celebrate love–or loss or absence or grief or joy or chocolate or the color red. Valentine’s Day is one of those not-so-holy (or so-holiday) holidays we bump into on the annual calendar, on our way to spring, rebirth and Easter rising. We didn’t really know what we’d get for our asking.
It’s an odd and fascinating assortment of reflections and observations from some of our favorite loves–our regular contributors, family and friends. Happy Valentine’s Day! We love you, we do!
“Month of Valentines” by Stacy Doris
“#MyGrownUpValentine” by Ashley Baxstrom with image by Angela Zito
“A Buddhist Valentine” by S. Brent Plate
“My Friend” by Jacob Glatstein, translated from the Yiddish by Peter Manseau
“A Valentine Offering” by Genevieve Yue
“My Wish this Valentine’s Day” by George González
“A Simple Dinner” by Anthea Butler
“St. Valentine’s Fallen Face” by David Metcalfe
“Heart in the Snow” by Mary Valle
“A Red Bagel” by Adam Becker
“The Gospel of Sacred Candy Hearts” by Amy Levin
“Be Mine” by Jeremy Walton
image: “Heart to Heart” by Angela Zito Continue Reading →
Sanctifying Wall Street
Amy Levin: Time for an update on #religion at #occupywallstreet? This week, Sarah Posner mediated a roundtable discussion with Religion Dispatches regular contributors highlighting particular religious moments of the occupy movement. Anthea Butler tells Posner says that Occupy Atlanta’s refusal to let civil rights protestor and Congressman John Lewis speak was a reflection of OWS “becoming slaves to the ‘process'” rather than accepting inspiration. The civil rights movement, like OWS, didn’t have a “complete consensus” either, and it was inspiration, not process, that sustained endurance.
Posner then questions Nathan Schneider about the role of self-identified religious groups in the movement like the Protest Chaplains and Occupy Judaism. Posner asks whether or not these groups are necessary for the success of OWS, or if religious activists are engaged in the movement in order to “reimagine the role of their respective religious traditions in contemporary political activism.” Schneider responds that the “ordinary trappings” of religion, like rituals and ceremonies, are needed in the movement; religious groups will only be able to get so far toward their own goals inside the “self-consciously non-hierarchical, revolutionary, and disruptive” environment of OWS. Continue Reading →
Teaching a Disaster
The Revealer has very rarely received as much mail as we did in response to Anthea Butler‘s response to Katrina, “As Sheep Without a Shepherd.” Some it angry about Anthea’s Continue Reading →
As Sheep Without a Shepherd
CNN has presented the boldest critique yet of the New Orleans rescue effort, a five minute interview with a calm, articulate man trapped in the Superdome, who calls what’s happening Continue Reading →