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I'm a religion studies professor researching Disney and I'm here to tell you why to stop pathologizing Disney adults, trending again because of this post. A thread: 
Disney Fairytale Weddings have been a thing since the 1990s. Disney already had a huge honeymoon market and decided to go for weddings. Thousands if not millions have married or honeymooned at a Disney park or on a cruise. What does this have to do with religion?
Many of the Disney fans I have observed in person and online find immense meaning in the parks. People don't just marry at Disney. They mourn lost relatives at Disney. They go to Disney to celebrate surviving cancer. They go there for one last trip before they die.
This is a Buddhist image. It might not look that way to you at first. Can you guess how it is Buddhist?
@BodiesBuddhist #BuddhistStudies #gender #ritual #amrel #visualculture #Buddhism
@BodiesBuddhist #BuddhistStudies #gender #ritual #amrel #visualculture #Buddhism
It doesn't LOOK Buddhist according to how we imagine Buddhist images should look. They should depict placid buddhas, wise monks, or dazzling mandalas.
But Buddhistness arises not from inherent properties in images themselves--it arises from use and context. What was the context and purpose of this image, therefore?
This is a Buddhist object. It might not look that way to you at first. Can you guess how it is Buddhist?
It doesn't LOOK Buddhist according to how we imagine Buddhist things should look. They should show some Asian aesthetic, such as Tibetan art styles. They should depict grand buddhas or wise monks, or be tools for meditation or mantra practice. They should be traditional (ancient)
But Buddhistness arises not from inherent properties in things themselves--it arises from use and context. What was the context and purpose of this object, therefore?
Rana Razek, Sally Howell, and I invite you to ur panel on race and religion in the Arab American Midwest. Thursday, May 27, 9 am on Zoom. It's free. Link and abstracts below. #sschat #amrel #arab #Islam
2/ Perhaps fitting since #AARSBL2020 is happening now, I have many #amrel & #APARRI folks to thank for making this book seem possible.
Because hot tip: It’s not easy to do a 2nd book so different from your 1st. In at least one different subfield. About a different time period.
Because hot tip: It’s not easy to do a 2nd book so different from your 1st. In at least one different subfield. About a different time period.
3/ Model Christians, Model Minorities (title tbd) asks how post-1965 Asian immigrants have changed U.S. evangelical institutions & politics.
It began as an attempt to understand why so many AA Christians (incl. members of my family) voted for Trump in 2016 (& some, in 2020).
It began as an attempt to understand why so many AA Christians (incl. members of my family) voted for Trump in 2016 (& some, in 2020).
Chiropractics is an excellent case study to think through what @Ghost_Image_, and others, have described as the modern politics of distinguishing between science / religion / superstition. Embedded in each category is a set of value judgments. (1/7) #acrel #amrel
As Holly Folk explores in "The Religion of Chiropractic," founder DD Palmer was a spiritualist and himself described chiropractic as a religion. Skeptics even then called it a superstition. His son, BJ Palmer, sought to make chiropractic more respectable, to some extent. (2/7)
Most chiropractors today insist that it is a science. Medical doctors usually agree that it can be an effective treatment for lower back pain, but demur on if it can help neck pain or even knee pain. The latter is what I am seeing a chiropractor for rn! (3/7)
Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands next Saturday, which marks the opening of blackface season. I always feel shy on Twitter, and most of my research is about ugly things that I don’t want to spread further, but some brief observations re: anti-black racism (warning) below.
82% of Dutch people think Pete should look like this forever, and anti-blackface activists are - literally - aggressively dismissed. I wrote a short essay about this last year. Why is it worse for a tradition to be CALLED racist than for it to BE racist? bit.ly/2zRMeaQ
My answer revolves around heritage, progressive ideals, and what happens when those ideals are ossified as quintessentially ’(white) Dutch’ - any accusation of racism = blaspheming a civic ideal at the core of Dutchness. Call blackface racist, and you are the enemy of progress.
