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RDPulpit: Excommunicating the Victims
While the family of a 9-year-old incest victim’s abortion is excommunicated, the perpetrator never even made it to the ecclesial radar screen. Let this case signal the end of any credible claim to authority of bishops and the dawn of a new era when local communities determine their own members. I daresay the world will be a safer, kinder place.
Is Darwin Responsible for the Chimp Attack?
In the wake of a terrifying and unexpected mauling by a chimpanzee, some have rushed to blame Darwin for putatively implying that they should behave just like us. But we're just as close to another chimp whose behavior is markedly different from this bellicose cousin.
Is Obama Satan’s Warm-up Act?
The co-authors of the eschatological Left Behind series appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to offer a variation on the theory that Obama may be the Antichrist.
Don’t Blame Secularism: Reading Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion
A new book of essays argues that the American media suffers due to secularism and a general ignorance of religion. But is secularism really at the heart of it, or is it a far broader and longer-standing relationship with ignorance of our “enemies” that creates the Blind Spot?
Mormon Bloggernacle is No Choir
A recent RD story on Mormon Mommy Bloggers sparked debate in LDS blogs and revealed a community in transition. What exactly is the “Bloggernacle”—and are “Mormon Mommy Bloggers” a part of it? And what happens to a church built on gathering when the internet becomes the primary meeting space?
By the Way: James Dobson Departs the Scene
As the old guard retires, a generational challenge emerges for the Christian Right. Who can lead a movement whose constituency no longer agrees with its core tenets?
What Kind of A Church Can Prevent a Holocaust?
At a time when spokesmen for the church were asserting that Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was a ‘gift of God,’ a courageous woman tried to get her fellow Christians to act to save the Jews. A new film, Elisabeth of Berlin, tells her story through the voices of church leaders, historians, and those who knew her.
Birth of the Bloggernacle
Mormons are natural storytellers, they say, and commanded by the church to research family history and take an account of their lives. LDS and the internet: a match made in heaven.
“Not a Fan of the Undergarments”: A Mormon Mother Blogs
A Mormon mommy blogger ponders spiritual laziness, gay marriage (fine with her), projectile vomiting, the evils of daylight savings time, and the relationship between Mormon-mom perfection and antidepressants.
While the Oscar-nominated hit portrays very little religion, the underlying framework reveals a distinctly Hindu and Indian perspective.
Milk: Hollywood Does Gay History
While Milk does much to revive the history of the gay liberation movement, it misses a few big opportunities.
Pop-Eye: Meat The Wrestler
How did reviewers from the New York Times to Christianity Today miss the obvious religious references in this Oscar-nominated hit? Did they blink and reach for popcorn at the images of a tattooed Jesus Christ on Randy’s back, or was it more about the myth of modern individualism and body-soul dualism?
Culture Wars Today, Tomorrow, and Forever?
Undermining Obama; The Haggards Play Oprah; Coral Ridge Ministries Makeover; Focus on the Family turns to plagiarist Tim Goeglein; GOP’s Taliban Fever; and AFA’s Project Push Back.
Dreaming Cyborg Dreams: Virtual Identity and Religious Experience
The fantasy realms of online gaming become even more surreal when religion enters the scene; imagine Batman going on pilgrimage to Mecca, or a virtual crucifixion, or massive Bibles, raining from the sky.
The Birth of Un-Cool: How Disgusted Liberals Became Neoconservatives
In the same way that actual radicals were chic among left-leaning socialites in the late seventies, NASCAR and pork rinds were a mark of authenticity for conservatives throughout the Bush years. But now some Republicans are rethinking their down-market identities.
Worse Than Madoff: Amway Launches Domestic Revival
The company whose founders helped finance the modern conservative movement is returning home to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.
For several weeks a debate has been taking place between an author of a document seeking to “end the culture wars” and the editor of a collection of essays on the Religious Left. In this installment the editor responds to criticisms and details their divergent goals.
Praying Away the Gay: “This is What Love Feels Like?”
Prayers For Bobby, a new Lifetime TV movie, portrays the tragic struggle of a gay teen in a conservative Christian family and the family’s attempt to “heal” him. Predictably, the film was heavily criticized by the religious right.
Super Bowl Sunday, American Holy Day
Indignant responses to the Janet Jackson nipple slip and the somber post-9/11 halftime show reveal glimpses of the sanctity of this yearly ritual, but it’s also in the creation of icons, the reinforcement of rules, and Americans telling themselves stories about themselves.
Obama’s civil religion, like JFK’s and Bush’s before him, emphasizes the connection between God and American ideals. But Obama spoke not of “endowed rights” but of “God-given promise.” Rights are inherent in the creature while promises are to be fulfilled.