ReligionDispatches - Dispatches From Media/Culture

Spinning Ft. Hood

Hussein Rashid — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:01 PST

RD associate editor Hussein Rashid scrutinizes a cross-section of reactions to the Ft. Hood massacre, from those eager to blame Islam to a number of Muslim-Americans.

A Daily Utopia: Creating Our Moral Values Every Day

Anna Peterson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:01 PST

The author of a new book talks to RD about the radical that lies beneath our everyday practices, whether ethics requires religion, and the “education of desire.”

Beautiful Dreamers: A Documentary Asks “What is God”?

Nathan Schneider — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 PST

Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results. Turns out the question—“What is God?”—reveals more than a person’s faith.

Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens

Eric Reitan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 PST

A new documentary called <i>Collision</i> follows the collegial debate between new atheist Christopher Hitchens and conservative evangelical Doug Wilson. Spoiler alert: Neither budges and both gloat to the respective choirs they’d been preaching to. Is this the best we can do?

Good Hair, Good God! The Divine Politics of African-American Hair

Anthea Butler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:01 PST

Chris Rock’s new documentary scrutinizes the politics and pathos of black hair care: from the beauty salon to the hair show, and from chemical relaxers to the Indian hair that fuels the hair weave industry.

Reverend Billy For Mayor: Is He For Real?

Nathan Schneider — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:00:01 PDT

Performance artist or man of God? Agitator or politician? The Church of Life After Shopping’s Reverend Billy has a choir and a congregation like a preacher—does he have to be a “real” clergyman to minister to the masses?

Mother (Nature) Will Eat You: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist

S. Brent Plate — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Von Trier’s terrifying rumination on the triad of “pain,” “grief,” and “despair” reminds us that, in contrast to the pronouncements of politicians on what is natural and normal, in nature eating one’s young is not too far out of the ordinary—especially in times of stress.

Atlanta Falcons “Defend the Dome”: Football, Religion, and Existential Power

Kenny Smith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

The Atlanta Falcons, defenders of the Georgia Dome, “fought, harassed, stuffed, smothered, and smacked” their way to victory last week. What is it about football that brings out such primal intensity in its fans?

Slouching Towards Lake Wobegon; Searching for Meaning in the Google Cloud

Peter Laarman — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Has the shift from sociability to social-networking left Garrison Keillor clinging to his Wobegone Lutherans of yesteryear? What of the glaring problems of those “simpler times?”

Harry Potter Gone Bad: Lev Grossman’s The Magicians

Donna Freitas — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:00:01 PDT

The characters in this adult, anti-fantasy novel of hope (and magic) lost appear to teach the lesson that Harry Potter probably ended up hating himself, and life, after the end of book seven. But would a less dour novel have been so highly praised?

Is the Boson Particle “Hated by God”?

Arri Eisen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:00:01 PDT

Two eminent physicists have hypothesized that the Higgs boson might be hated by God to such an extent that if one occurred it would go back in time and stop itself from being made.

Art as Religion, Museum as Temple

Louis A. Ruprecht — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:00:01 PDT

For the Greeks, museums were sacred places dedicated to the muses. How is it that the Catholic Church got into the pagan shrine business?

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided Explores the Dark Side of Positive Thinking

Michelle Goldberg — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:01 PDT

A new book reveals the historical roots and conservative uses of the positive thinking movement, showing how it encourages victim-blaming, political complacency, and a culture-wide flight from realism.

Bright-Sided Recalls Mark Twain’s Travails

Michael A. Elliott — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:01 PDT

Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book on the dangers of Positive Thinking recalls Mark Twain’s obsession with the 19th century’s most famous mind-over-matter exponent: Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy. Are critics just jealous?

Lars von Trier is the Antichrist Best Film Director in the World

S. Brent Plate — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:00:01 PDT

In the great tradition of Socrates and Kierkegaard, Lars von Trier realizes that his role is to enable the audience to ask questions and confront themselves.

How Mormonism Built Glenn Beck

Joanna Brooks — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Some are familiar with Glenn Beck’s teary Mormon conversion story, but what many are not aware of is the extent to which Mormonism has given Beck key elements of his on-air personality and messaging—and how it may shape the future of American conservatism.

Republican Gomorrah Documents the Christian Right Takeover of the GOP

Chip Berlet — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:00:01 PDT

Despite resorting to demonization and dated paradigms, Max Blumenthal’s muckraking first book traces the fascinating history of the religious right and its web of gothic and aggressive conspiracy theories—making a convincing case that the Republican Party has been “shattered” by a right-wing religious movement.

The Revolution Will Be Whispered: An Excerpt From Everywhere a Guest, Nowhere at Home: A New Vision of Israel and Palestine

Kim Chernin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:00:01 PDT

In this lyrical excerpt, author Kim Chernin envisions a new solution that rises up from the Sinai desert nurtured by two little girls.

Jennifer’s Body and Why I Like Buffy’s Body Better

W. Scott Poole — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:01 PDT

Has a hotly anticipated new horror film about a murderous cheerleader subverted the mythos of woman as the source of evil or just the opposite?

Jewish “Women of the Wall” Defy Law to Pray

Kelly Hartog — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:00:01 PDT

A powerful documentary, “Praying in Her Own Voice,” chronicles twenty years of struggle for religious equality at one of Judaism’s most sacred sites and asks: How can there be unity when half the population is silenced?

Religion and Science: Toward a Postmodern Truce

Philip Clayton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:01 PDT

The New Atheists, armed with swords and cudgels, are still doing old-fashioned battle with religion; but they haven't noticed that the skirmish may have passed them by. Are religion and science poised for a truce?

Mythmaking 101, or, Why We Believe in Death Panels

Kenny Smith — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:01 PDT

Forget what you learned about myth from Joseph Campbell—this death panel rumor is the real deal: values masquerading as truth, all in service of one heckuva group fantasy.

Satanic or Silly: Does Yale Press Censorship of Cartoons Insult Muslims?

Daniel Martin Varisco — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:01 PDT

While the rioting over the Danish cartoons seems to be well behind us, Yale University Press recently removed the images from a new scholarly work on the topic. Do Muslim extremists need a scholarly book as pretext with two wars being fought in Muslim nations and an ongoing crisis in Gaza? The problem isn’t with these images, but with the ubiquitous Islamophobia in the United States.

‘Soul Murder’ in the American Workplace

Peter Laarman — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:00:01 PDT

As the media yawns at the latest unemployment numbers, our columnist seeks religious leadership on the taboo subject of our dysfunctional relationship to work. For even if the economy recovers and “full employment” returns, we will still be encountering a workplace that remains a site of utter terror in some instances and a site of routine abuse and low-grade anxiety in others.

Rarefied Islamophobia: When Americans Duplicate the European Cultural Talk

Jocelyne Cesari — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:00:01 PDT

By presenting itself as a disinterested collection of “facts” and “data,” an alarmist new book about the Muslim threat to Europe has been taken more seriously than your standard Islamophobic pamphlet.