There’s a new piece in the New York Times, by Susan Jacoby, on the Jewish victims of the Crusades. It notes that a lot of the debate in public spaces has focused on Christians versus Muslims, but not the slaughter of Jews in the Rhineland in the 1090s and, more broadly, Crusade-related persecutions elsewhere. That’s…
This appears to be Grade-A policing…restraint/stabilization until action/force is unavoidable. http://t.co/DxlzDLo1bw @Lollardfish ^lh — The Virtus Group (@TheVirtusGroup) February 7, 2015 I write a lot about bad killings and ugly use-of-force incidents. I then get asked, “well what should the cops have done?” which is a fair question. One of the people I rely on…
Do You Like Me? Check Yes __ No ___ I reject binary epistemology ___ #AcademicValentines — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) February 14, 2015 More later. Writing.
The problem isn’t religion. The problem is ideology. Every time I write about religion and violence, which is pretty often in general and regularly over the last week, I get a lot of bigoted anti-religion responses (and plenty of other hostile responses from believers, but let’s put those to the side for now). To which…
I’ve been meaning to write about the story of Leo Forrest for a few days now. The gist of the story ACCORDING TO THE FATHER is that his father (Samuel) got media attention based on the claim that Leo’s mother (Ruzan) demanded Samuel choose between Leo and her. Leo has Down syndrome. Ruzan, according to…
A number of conservative Crusades scholars, some people I consider friends, have told me how wrong my Guardian piece is. They have not, though, really told me why. I thought I would boil my piece down to six core arguments and number them, in hopes of receiving better feedback. Maybe a real discussion could break…
In an earlier post, I talked about crusades and memory, linking to my Guardian piece and talking about the meaning of the violence linked to Crusading. I suggested that historians might debate whether a given battle or moment of violence happened, or whether it happened because of religious hatred for “the other,” versus some other…
I have a new piece up at The Guardian on the recent right-wing fury over President Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast (an event for which presidential involvement needs to be ended). While relatively few contemporary Christians are calling for the crusades these days (although crusader iconography is not uncommon in the US military), it’s…
Here are just a few resources I’m currently using: The president’s remarks in full. Here’s the key excerpt: We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of…
I have a bunch of pieces I’m writing this morning, but didn’t want this story to go un-blogged. Tim Tebow is organizing proms for people with disabilities on Valentine’s Day. [my emphasis] The events — which are expected to draw some 7,000 people with disabilities — will each come complete with a red-carpet entrance, paparazzi,…