ReligionDispatches.org

What does the word “God” mean? Anything and everything, depending on whether you’re a Bible-believer or an atheist, a rap artist or a writer for South Park, a peyote-eater or Meg Ryan in a diner...

Was Michael Jackson a supernatural magician or an icon of self-immolation? Both? The physical body is gone, the musical productivity has ceased, the capacity to speak for himself is no more, so now MJ is a wonderfully ambiguous figment of our imagination. Three religion scholars discuss the life, legend, meaning, and myth of one of the world's most talented, successful, and perhaps tortured performers.

Can a man have multiple wives? Do different positions bear spiritual fruit? What is the meaning of orgasm? Religious traditions thrive on intimacy with and access to the body, its experience of suffering, sorrow, and sickness, as well as rapture, delight, and bliss. A romp through America’s favorite, most taboo subject.

Though surveys of American religion continue to reveal a rise in the “no religion,” and “unaffiliated” categories the transcendent experience of a Wilco show can lead the way to a more nuanced understanding.

Bono finds “soul music” in the work of secular do-gooders, and a contingent of Scottish police declare themselves members of the Church of Jedi. Looks like we have religion everywhere, and not a god in sight.

Can a survey capture the true nature of the sacred in America? What if the Super Bowl, kinky sex, science, Elvis, Viagra, and the iPhone hold the keys to understanding the sacred and its role in the lives of millions of Americans as they reckon with suffering and ecstasy, reproduction and aging, family and conflict, health and death?

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.

This Halloween, apart from your garden-variety ghouls, skeletons, monsters, witches, vampires and zombies, Americans will be visited by the ghosts of past presidents, the spirits of dead soldiers, and by the souls of those who endured slavery. It is a season of reckoning, both social and political. The election, on the other hand, is about life, today, now. Or is it?

More than Tupac or Marilyn or Di or Kurt or Jimi, the cult of Elvis transcends labels like industry or entertainment; it is worthy of church, but the spirit of Elvis cannot be institutionalized...

America has defined itself through identification of evil enemies and shared grief for heroes who die fighting them...

The Religious Right’s wildly popular video attack on Oprah’s “dangerous” teachings may not be as far off base as it first appears.

In the wake of the June 26 Supreme Court ruling, thoughts on the gun’s sacred role in US culture and our God-given right to be violent...

Religion Dispatches′ intrepid editor-in-chief comments on the ritual of the election season...