Author: Sheila Marler
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New America Foundation, Quiverfull and the Attack on Reproductive Rights
Reading Time: 14 minutesOn March 31, an opinion was published on the Yahoo Contributor’s Network concerning a Tennessee mother who had her son baptized without the permission of her estranged husband. in this man’s opinion she should go to jail. ((Poupard, Vincent L. Mother who baptized children without consent needs to go to jail. Yahoo…
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Fatherhood Initiatives and Grothman’s Senate Bill 507
Reading Time: 4 minutesSenate Bill 507 introduced by Wisconsin Republican Senator Glenn Grothman is the last in a series of outrageous attacks on the rights of women, and it signals a clear trend. Senate Bill 507 moves to amend existing state law by “requiring the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to emphasize (non-marital) parenthood…
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Nomads and City Dwellers Institutions and Worldview
Reading Time: 16 minutes Ancient Israel: Its Life and InstitutionsRoland de Vaux The Bible is not reliable for ethnographic information. This is especially true in regard to nomads’ and city dwellers’ institutions and worldview. Sheep-breeding tribes who are beginning to settle down were formerly camel-breeders who had begun to raise cattle so they…
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Adam, Noah and the Snake-king
Reading Time: 7 minutesThis article, Adam and Noah and the snake king, argues that Old Testament Characters are echoed in the myths of other cultures.
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For Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser
Reading Time: 2 minutesI was going to write about nomadism. My sources were going to be a Dominican priest who lived most of his life in Jerusalem and two Jewish scholars, one Hungarian and one German. The main idea I wanted to get across was the innocence, simplicity, and integrity of the nomadic way of…
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American Nomads on Wall Street
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere is a growing discussion about the future of Occupy Wall Street. Since the protesters’ campsites have been taken down, some speculate that the movement will fade away. So far, the protesters are determined to continue. Everyone agrees that in order to be effective they must stay in the public eye. Actually,…
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The Genealogy of Adam and Eve
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe central tendency and probably the major cause of error in modern religion is the determination to separate male and female and define them as superior or inferior in relation to each other. This is often called ‘difference’ rather than inferiority, but it usually results in disadvantages for women. Even today the…
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Israel and Iran: War Religion and Politics
Reading Time: 5 minutesIsrael’s apparent desire to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities can’t help but draw Americans in to a very confusing drama. For many reasons Israel is important to Americans. For some American Christians the Jews represent spiritual kin. Still, other Christians, such as Christian Zionists, emphasize the division between Christians and Jews. The relationship…
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The Warrior and His Gods
Reading Time: 12 minutesIn “The Stakes of the Warrior” Georges Dumézil uses his theory of the tri-functional structure of Indo-European society as a framework for the analyses of stories belonging to three different areas of the world; India, Scandinavia, and Greece. His comparative study includes the Scandinavian saga of Starkaṓr, the Indian tale of Śiśupāla,…
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The Lord of Creatures
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn Hermes in India a discussion began about the Lord of Creatures. It is now obvious that this subject is more difficult than I imagined. There are several related terms that have to do with the nature of God. They have similar meanings, but they can belong to completely different gods. Dumézil said…