If Wall Street Repents, Can Main Street Forgive?
Jacki Zehner is the President of the Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Family Foundation and a Founding Partner of Circle Financial Group. She blogs at www.pursepundit.blogspot.com.
The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson is the President of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, an institute for religious leadership, founded in 1818 with a history of commitment to progressive social causes from abolition of slavery to women's rights. She blogs at newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith.
After a minister, a seminary president, and a former Goldman Sachs partner suggested in The Daily Beast that Goldman create a fund to invest in small businesses, the firm did just that. But now they say the Wall Street behemoth's path to redemption has just begun.
Mary Magdalene and Me
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
As a relic of Mary Magdalene tours the U.S. for the first time, former call girl Tracy Quan on how the patron saint of prostitutes has been present throughout her life.
Why Honor Killings Happen
Asra Q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She is co-director of the Pearl Project, an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Her activism for women’s rights at her mosque in West Virginia is the subject of a PBS documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown. She can be found on Facebook, and reached at asra@asranomani.com
Fathima Rifqa Bary believes her father will murder her for converting to Christianity from Islam. Asra Q. Nomani on how intolerance in the Muslim community has given credence to such fears.
Why the Taliban Won
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Despite both sides declaring victory in last week's Afghanistan election, the Taliban is the real winner. Leslie H. Gelb on violence-including chopping off ink-stained fingers-at the polls.
Can God Save Health Care?
James Carroll's recent book is Practicing Catholic, a story of American belief. He is a columnist for the Boston Globe and Distinguished-Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University. His other books include An American Requiem, which won the National Book Award, House of War, winner of the PEN-Galbraith Award, and Constantine's Sword, now an acclaimed documentary.
President Obama struck the wrong note this week when he made a religious appeal for health care. James Carroll on how Obama should start talking like a true believer.
Is Michael in Heaven?
Jason Boyett is the author of the upcoming books Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, Pocket Guide to the Bible, and Pocket Guide to Sainthood, releasing in August from Jossey-Bass. His writing has appeared in Salon, Paste, Relevant, and other publications. He blogs about religion and culture at jasonboyett.com.
Michael Jackson was raised by Jehovah's Witnesses and flirted with Scientology and Islam. Now many Christian groups wonder if the King of Pop is residing with the King of Kings.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
