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 […]
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. Certainly, for at least some LGBTIQ organizations […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. There are a host of issues around these films and the industry that generates them, not the least being the way Hollywood reflects and, worse, constructs […]
“It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal.” So begins a recent article in the New York Times. According to a new report, more than half of births to women under the age of 30 now occur outside of marriage. Of course, the story is more complicated with birth rates ranging widely by […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]