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HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Wicca Wacka Halloween... time to bake the challah. Keren Engelberg, a contributing writer for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, reports that some scholars suspect the Sabbath bread got its twists in pagan times, when Northern European women offered special braided... [ Continue reading: ] 
LIVES
God Hut Jewish architect Richard Meier's vision for the Catholic church has just opened in a working class suburb of Rome. There's a lovely picture in The New York Times — Meier shot from down low in front of his creation, hand... [ Continue reading: ] 
CHURCH V. STATE
The Kids Are Alright The editors of The New Republic argue in this week's edition that the Supreme Court should allow the words "under God" to remain in the Pledge of Allegiance, since "even schoolchildren understand that the Pledge is a patriotic rather than... [ Continue reading: ] 
WHAT'S MISSING
Lazy At Heart There's a bestselling book out there advising men to reclaim their masculine souls from the clutches of a feminized culture, to connect with their hunter hearts, to "pursue beauty" by pursuing women (some might call that "stalking") and to do... [ Continue reading: ] 
FAITH
Catapulting Christians Culture Is Not Optional is an intriguing name for a religious organization, and Catapult is an even better name for its magazine. This fine nomenclature is the work of a group of "neo-Calvinists," an under-reported strain of the new orthodoxy... [ Continue reading: ] 
ART
Somebody’s Watching You When Iranian artists Neda Razavipour and Shahab Fotuhi proposed an installation in a downtown Tehran apartment building, the government’s Office of Beautification told them “The condition of permanence must be taken into account.” As in, for art to be good,... [ Continue reading: ] 
CHURCH V. STATE
And Now, This France, lately indistinguishable from Saudi Arabia to many Americans, is considering banning the hijab from public schools. [ Continue reading: ] 
THE PRESS
Double-Cross Has The New Republic found a new religion? Long considered the preeminent pulpit for hawkish pro-Israel views, not to mention thoughtful writing on the rest of Judaism courtesy of literary editor Leon Wieseltier, the magazine now stands accused by the... [ Continue reading: ] 
DEADLINE THEOLOGY
"Europe is No Longer Christian" Today's New York Times features a front-pager on the decline of institutional religion in Europe by Frank Bruni. Running for a full page on the inside, it sheds as much light on the changing nature of "church" in America as... [ Continue reading: ] 
SCANDAL
Tie Your Camel. The problem with the Justice Department's investigation of American Muslim Council director Abdurrahman Alamoudi, writes Shahed Amanullah and Aslam Abdullah, is that American Muslims didn't think of it first. Is Alamoudi's arrest part of an Ashcroftian witchhunt? Perhaps, but that... [ Continue reading: ]
SCHISMS
Biblical Christians (As Opposed to The Other Kind) A gathering of conservative Episcopalians in Dallas ended yesterday with the church still intact and the majority of the conservatives dedicated to pushing Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire out for being out rather than splintering off to form their... [ Continue reading: ] 
BOOKS
Sacred Snark The Believer is a new journal dedicated to the proposition that "snark" must be rooted out from criticism in the popular press. Since The Believer launched a year ago, there has been much discussion about just what constitutes snark —... [ Continue reading: ] 
THE PRESS
Kristof-Watch The Revealer agrees with Nicholas Kristof's condemnation of the Bush Administration's stipulation that 1/3 of oversees anti-AIDS money go to the "promotion of abstinence" (an Orwellian phrase in more ways than one), and as usual he's out there reporting from... [ Continue reading: ] 
HOLIDAY SPECIAL
A Jewishy, Irishy, Yom Kippur Special Years ago, Arthur Carter — publisher of The New York Observer, and, at the time, The Nation, for which I was then an intern — asked me what I was. "An employee?" I asked, confounded by the great man's question.... [ Continue reading: ] 
DEADLINE THEOLOGY
An American Pope? Should Gray Davis be allowed to take communion? Some conservative Roman Catholic leaders say no, but not because they're stumping for the Austrian Oak. Rather, they're part of a "social renewal" movement within the Church that seeks to show some... [ Continue reading: ] 
THE PRESS
And Then There Was One Jesus is second only to Hitler in terms of units sold when it comes to moving newsweeklies, but that hasn't stopped U.S. News and World Report from firing religion writer Jeff Sheler. That leaves Time's David Van Biema as the... [ Continue reading: ]
CULTURE CLASH
Who's Being Spooky? Last Spring, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti gave Voodoo official recognition, most notably legalizing Voodoo marriages. Now, reports Christianity Today, "Christians" fear a national "pact with the Devil" in the island nation. This is surprising news — not the pact,... [ Continue reading: ] 
WHAT'S MISSING
Rant du Jour Orion isn't classified as a religion magazine, but it should be. Its mix of eco-notions and ideas, romanticization of the simple life, and assaults on the vulgarity of mass cult mark it as heir to The Dial, Ralph Waldo Emerson's... [ Continue reading: ]
BOOKS
God Lite 101 God should drop out of school and get a real job, according to a new book on the history of religious studies in the modern university. Not that the Lord did anything wrong; college just isn't right for Him. According... [ Continue reading: ]
CATHOLICISM
"It's Not Just Hooting and Hollering" Lost amidst the flurry of reports on the Pope's latest -- and probably last -- selection of cardinals is this story of an attempt by right-wing cardinals already in power to crack down on what may be the gravest threat... [ Continue reading: ] |