What should we be hurt by?

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 1:49 pm By Leah Libresco

Poking around the internet, I ran across two interesting articles that seemed to be linked only by offhand comments about the legitimacy or ‘realness’ of certain kinds of suffering. First, from a Mother Jones piece on PTSD: Whatever is happening to Caleb, it’s as old as war itself. The ancient historian Herodotus told of Greeks being honorably dismissed for being “out of heart” and “unwilling to encounter danger.” Civil War doctors, who couldn’t think of any other thing that might be unpleasant... Read more

Watch me discuss the Ideological Turing Test at Chicago Ideas Week!

Last updated on: January 28, 2013 at 3:09 pm By Leah Libresco

In October, I was one of the religion panelists at the Chicago Ideas Week conference. My co-panelists included Eboo Patel (interfaith activist), Lauren Drain (fled the Westboro Baptist Church), Theodore Ross (his family hid their Judaism) and Julia Sweeney (atheist and comic). Since we were a diverse group of people, my talk was on having better arguments about religious disagreements, instead of just agreeing to disagree. My talk was based on some of the principles of curious, charitable discussion that... Read more

Darren the Humanist Explains it All to You

Last updated on: January 26, 2013 at 10:53 am By Leah Libresco

This is a guest post, prompted my plea to hear more about how Humanists ground their philophies and people’s interest in Darren’s thought in the comments. Thanks Darren for talking about what you defend! There was discussion on Leah’s blog of last week that the tenets of Humanism (or Secular Humanism, as I prefer) appear to lack a certain satisfying specificity. Having read through a few of the official manifestos, I am sympathetic to this view. It is all well... Read more

7 Quick Takes (1/25/12)

Last updated on: January 25, 2013 at 4:00 am By Leah Libresco

— 1 — Via io9, I found this beautiful, unconventionally animated story of a man who set off to kill Death. (Which naturally also reminded me of Mr. Teatime in Hogfather, which I heartily recommend). — 2 — Meanwhile in unconventional theatre news, First Things is reporting that a British theatre company is staging a sold-out production of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice: The Musical. Here’s the synopsis: In order to draw inspiration for his magnum opus, John Rawls travels back through time... Read more

Questing for God in Land of Faerie

Last updated on: January 23, 2013 at 2:20 pm By Leah Libresco

Fare Forward, a new Christian magazine has just released its third issue. Some articles are available to subscribers only, but my review of Philip Pullman’s Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm is up today as one of the preview articles. Check out my essay on learning moral law on the wrong side of the wardrobe, and check out the other topics in the issue to see if you’d like to subscribe. Here’s a teaser quote from my review: [W]hy does God... Read more

Pulling Off the New Vulgarity

Last updated on: August 8, 2014 at 12:51 am By Leah Libresco

I am cautiously optimistic for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, though, like pretty much everyone, I have some hugely unsettled and queasy feelings each time I watch the trailer below: The modern music is jarring, and the dancing looks lewd. But I think that might be all to the good. It’s hard to manage vulgarity when it occurs in a period piece. Flapper dresses are so much prettier and more embellished than my jeans and a t-shirt that it’s... Read more

Waiting for Enemies to Die

Last updated on: January 21, 2013 at 1:38 pm By Leah Libresco

There’s an expression I’ve heard in the gay rights movement as a kind of rallying cry, “Every time you see an ambulance go by, it’s either a supporter of gay rights being born, or an opponent dying.” I don’t cite this line to single out the gay rights movement; I think most of us feel this way when we’re in a fight. For an example on the other side, look at the way Mark Shea used to call me and... Read more

The Gay Marriage Debate I’m Looking Forward To

Last updated on: January 20, 2013 at 5:04 pm By Leah Libresco

The Modern Love column that appears this week in The New York Times is written by a woman who found that gay marriage did have a big change on her own marriage: it made her feel more married. I’ll pull a few quotes, but pop over and read the whole thing. For me, marriage-role terminology carried too much baggage of a history I didn’t want. Although I could imagine the pride with which a new bride might have worked the words “my... Read more

Does Anyone Else Pray for Fictional Characters?

Last updated on: January 19, 2013 at 6:04 pm By Leah Libresco

In a Catholic Mass, the whole ritual is subdivided into two basic parts: the Liturgy of the Word (where we read parts of the Old and New Testaments) and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where Christ offers us his Body and Blood. During the hinge point, where we move from one part to the other, is a section called named the General Intercessions or Prayers of the Faithful where someone will read out a list of prayer intentions for the... Read more

7 Les Mis Takes (1/18/13)

Last updated on: January 18, 2013 at 6:37 am By Leah Libresco

— 1 — With my Javert medley of posts and the First Things essay on justice of yesterday, I may have exhausted (for the next few days at least) my Les Mis blogging, but, luckily, I’ve got the whole internet to draw on for this week’s Les Mis clipshow. And I have to start with the Les Fiscal Miserables tumblr, which greatly lightened my heart during the fiscal cliff negotiations. I am totally picking two of my favorites to embed: — 2... Read more

Which people attacked Israel at Rephidim and were defeated as Moses held up his hands?