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For Santorums, personal tragedy turned political
Haunting the political landscape is the ghost (or soul or spirit or memory or image, depending on how you see these things) of Gabriel Michael Santorum. Born at 19 gestational weeks, too young to live outside the uterus, Gabriel died […]
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Who owns yoga?
The video, three minutes long and posted just a week ago, is tearing up the Internet, causing appreciative reactions among heterosexual men and some yoga fans and disapproval among yoga purists. Shot in the penthouse of the Mondrian SoHo hotel in […]
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An Ism Is Born
Are we all secretly kid-haters at heart? To the tally of those requiring protection from the constant, corrosive prejudice of the dominant culture, another group must now be added. It turns out that American children—whose wants and whims support untold […]
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The new evangelical vote
White evangelical voters just aren’t as predictable as they used to be. That’s the news out of Iowa – and it’s bound to be reflected in Republican primary results all over the country. The most interesting poll data from the Iowa […]
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Finding meaning beyond the Christmas bows, bells and baby Jesus
One year, I tried to skip Christmas. I was 30 and single. I lived alone. My family of origin doesn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, and I’d spent enough Christmas mornings with other people’s families, opening a token gift from […]
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How to be Jewish at Christmas
I think of the Jews of the Beit Alpha synagogue as I sit here in my New York City apartment, watching our Christmas tree being hoisted, the boxes of lights and ornaments in heaps, the child scampering in excitement, orchestrating, advising — […]
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Heroes: Because Zurana Horton Took a Bullet to Save Her Daughter’s Life.
She had just picked up 11-year-old Alexis, one of her twelve children, from school at Brownsville’s P.S. 298. They turned up Watkins Street and walked past the firehouse, on their way to retrieve another one of her girls. They had […]
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Right Rev. Mariann Budde reaching out for a more vital Episcopal Church
On meeting her, you’d hope so. Bright-eyed, string-bean skinny and 52 years old, Budde (pronounced bud-EE) has the athletic bearing and viselike handshake of your high school lacrosse coach. She is unapologetically liberal, and the way she answers hot-button questions — “I’m in […]
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Will voters forgive Newt Gingrich?
I once watched an apology rebuffed. A young child said something hurtful to a grown-up dinner guest. After prompting from her mother, the child apologized. “I’m sorry,” the 6-year-old said in a dutiful and not completely sincere tone. “Sorry,” replied […]
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Is the black church the answer to liberal prayers?
As the American left continues to seek a coherent way to articulate its moral priorities in these days of political stalemates and widening income gaps, it might look to the most unlikely of places — the academy — for guidance […]