In my intimate circles, Oscar Sunday is a holy day of obligation. And, as with most holidays, the longer I keep it, the more ambivalently I feel about it. More >
Current Events
Blog posts in "Current Events"
As many reading this blog may have already heard, Dr. Ada María Isasi-Díaz passed away in the early morning on May 13, 2012. While there are many other more qualified scholars, colleagues and friends to write a memorializing blog than I, I take up the task with humility and responsibility. I have known Ada since 1999 when she spoke in one of Rev. More >
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 might just turn out to be a historic day: a day in which a sitting president of the United States of America claimed his (at least personal) support for gays and lesbians (but not bisexual or transgendered people?) to have legal access to marriage. More >
Lady Gaga, an Italian American pop singer and a self-described Catholic, has launched her “Born This Way Ball” tour in various locations in Asia. Her itinerary, which includes Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, and Jakarta, debuted at Seoul’s Olympic Park on April 27, 2012. While her fans hailed her with cheers, a group of conservative Korean Christians greeted her with street banners that publicly denounced her performance, having prayed that her concert would not take place in Korea. More >
As much as the 2012 U.S. presidential election and issues related to it have been at the center of public debate in America, so too have the election of the 19th National Assembly members (April 11th) and the 2012 presidential election (December) occupied the hearts and minds of people in South Korea. Given the heavy influence of the U.S.—political, military, and economic—on the Korean peninsula, it is not surprising that FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the U.S. More >
I am trying to make sense of the installation art piece by the Black Swedish artist, Makode Aj Linde. As part of an art exhibit that focuses on female genital mutilation, Linde created a Venus Hottentot cake body for which he served as the head. Each time one of the attendees, largely White folks, cut into the vagina of the cake for their slice, Linde screams in pain. More >
In the initial wake of coverage related to the healthcare mandate to cover contraception, media outlets concentrated on “religious communities” opposition to the requirement. From a theological and doctrinal perspective, the only major Christian denomination to oppose use of contraception is the Roman Catholic Church. Other conservative religious leaders chimed in to support what they saw as a crack in the dividing wall between “church and state” (and for some, apocalyptic connections between anything related to women’s health options and abortion). More >
On January 8, 1992, former “comfort women,” concerned individuals, and human rights and feminist activists from various organizations held a protest in Seoul, the capital city of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), during the state visit of Japan’s prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa. They demanded the Japanese government’s official apology to victims-survivors for Japan’s military sexual slavery (euphemistically called “comfort women”) during World War II. Since 1992, what has become known as the Wednesday Demonstration has been held every Wednesday in various locations in South Korea. More >
The recent Supreme Court ruling on ministerial exception potentially legalizes all manner of bad behavior on the part of religious institutions whose understanding of “all God’s children” is narrow, particular, and biased. First, by defining “minister” so broadly, the court allows religious institutions to declare any person who works within it’s doors and/or ministries as on par with the ordained clergy saying that the ministerial exception rule applies to those who have “a role in conveying the church’s message and carrying out its mission.” Although Chief Justice John Robert More >