AUTHOR
John Evans
John Evans has written for theater and the big screen. His essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in several publications on the East and West Coasts.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Yes, chatty little “everyone-knows” assertions can develop into virulent violent acts of rage with the turn of a page, the click of a mouse, the frown of a doubt. So yes, let’s talk about hate. Or, on second thought, let’s not. Let’s talk about not-hate. The use of the word “hate” lets far too many people go (“Tsk. Not me.”). It’s too easy to say, “Goodness gracious, I don’t HATE those people. I just would rather my kids went to a ‘better’ school, if you know what I mean.”
MEDIA & ETHICS
Juvenal, the ancient Roman poet, had a phrase for it: “Bread and circuses.” By that he meant keep the rabble distracted from their woes with entertainment of the grossest kind .
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The fear and suspicion of the sudden influx of foreigners in general and Irish-Catholics in particular spawned a political movement known variously as the “Native American Party” or the “American Party,” but more broadly as the “Know-Nothing Party.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
And now just a few short weeks later, all of us suddenly find ourselves searching for faith elsewhere than where the signs and marquees direct us. But faith needs no seats, no altar, no stained-glass windows, no doors nor even walls.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
Well, is religion that dangerous or irrelevant? Should we consider being evangelical about the gospel of Nothingness? Shall we take John Lennon at his word and “imagine” no religion, no heaven above, “living only for today?”
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
There’s a Jewish legend about what happens to us before we are born. An Angel appears and introduces us to all the high and low places in the world, all the great works of Nature, all the important and trivial affairs of men.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Religion has been in an international statistical decline. The religiously unaffiliated, otherwise known as "nones," are growing significantly.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The late astronomer and teacher, Carl Sagan, requested that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, in its journey through the cosmos, pause at the edge of our solar system and take a photo of the Earth as seen from that perspective before traveling on. The scientists at NASA granted his request and, on February 14, 1990, the resulting image, transmitted from 4 billion miles away, shows our planet as it is in the universe: a pale blue dot, barely the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Old lies die hard. A recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League revealed that 13 percent believe that “Jews are more likely to use shady practices to get what they want,” and 18 percent believe that “Jews have too much power in the business world.” 89 percent of citizens surveyed in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan surveyed had a “very unfavorable opinion of Jews.”
