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   Next Year, Same Place A special holiday image by Arang Keshavarzian: The Holyland Experience (a theme park in Orlando), where Easter comes in November and Christ(mas), like the apocalypse, is always now. [ Continue reading: ] A Misunderstanding Between Friends This November I received a disturbing e-mail. Presbyterian pastors like me were being alerted that the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had received an anonymous letter threatening arson attacks against Presbyterian churches. "You bet your ass this is a terrorist threat," the would-be arsonist wrote in closing... [ Continue reading: ]  Diversity a la Booth Cherie Booth, wife of British P.M. Tony Blair, has intervened in the case of a 15-year old Muslim girl who was prevented from wearing a burqa to school. Booth claims the school violated the student's homan rights, and is seeking... [ Continue reading: ] Sharia Law Review in Canada On Monday, former Canadian attorney general Marion Boyd released a report on the 1991 Arbitration Act, which allows religious groups to arbitrate civil disputes, and under which a Canadian Muslim group plans to implement a form of sharia law. In... [ Continue reading: ] Playwright in Hiding Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, author of the play that has caused violent protests among Sikhs in England, has reportedly gone into hiding after receiving threats of kidnapping and murder.... [ Continue reading: ] Gay Target Christian conservative groups like Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association and the Christian Defense Coalition say they've found the culprit behind Target's decision to bar Salvation Army bell-ringers. Fortuitously for them, it's not some ambiguous corporate policy, or... [ Continue reading: ] Year of Christ Archaeology After a hard year's work, finding John's baptismal cave and the skull of the pharaoh's eldest son, archaeologists haved earned a drink. So far, all they've found are shards from large stone jars at a location which might be Cana,... [ Continue reading: ] No A little-noticed case with big implications: "Finding Title VII's exemption for religious institutions 'is not limited to facilities where prayer takes place,'" writes The Legal Intelligencer, "a magistrate judge has dismissed a suit against a Jewish community center brought by an evangelical Christian who claims she was fired because she attended a 'Jews for Jesus' concert." Christianity Today's Ted Olsen says this is "good news"... [ Continue reading: ] Taking the Christmas Out of Christianity And then there are the Christians who don't believe in Christmas at all... Donna Gehrke-White of Knight Ridder Newspapers adds a log to the What Is Christmas About? fire with a story on the Florida Sunset Church of Christ, the... [ Continue reading: ] 23% of Brits to Blame British Bishop Jonathan Gledhill insisted in his Christmas message that England was not a multi-faith country, but still a solidly Christian one, with 72% of recent respondents to a UK census identifying themselves as Christian, and only 5% as belonging... [ Continue reading: ]  The Shelf-Life of Angels Bia Lowe investigates the devolution of angels, lyrics, and humanity: "It is still a mystery as to why A. curiosa ["angels"] developed a mouth part, since there was no apparent need -- nothing to be gained, nothing to be transcended, nothing, indeed, to be fought, won, or defended. These early mouth parts were concentrations of chitonous material, likely used to scrape, gnaw or puncture flora, though it is not clear whether such activities were required for eating or for purposes of aggression. It is, however, quite likely that these proto-mouths gave rise to the first lyric, as remnants survive today within the ectomorphic vestiges of such celestial hand-me-downs as, say, the ad jingle and the pop song chorus; or endomorphically within the relentless -- in fact maddening -- sing-songs of various psycho-dynamic pathologies, such as OCD." More... [ Continue reading: ] Baldwin Wants Out of the Millennial Kingdom "Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the Catholic Church but by the Religious Right?" Who wants to know? Baptist Senior Pastor Chuck Baldwin, who, with his four fundamentalist Christian degrees, his record... [ Continue reading: ] Same As It Ever Was China's new regulations on religious affairs -- described by the government as a safeguard of religious freedom -- are unlikely to actually increase the free practice of unofficial religions, such as China's many underground Catholic and Protestant house churches, and... [ Continue reading: ] Free Speech is for Groups of 10,000 or More Violent protests by Sikhs in Birmingham, England ended the run of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play, drama Behzti, or Dishonour, which contains murder and rape scenes taking place in a Sikh temple. Audience members were evacuated from the theatre Saturday night... [ Continue reading: ] Church of Good Drinking Since St. Mark's Episcopal Church introduced its own homebrewed beer to the church's "pub Sunday" lunches this fall, Sunday morning attendance is up among Gen. X and Y sinners, and parishioners aren't sure if they could go back to commercial... [ Continue reading: ] My Fox and My God and My G.O.P. According to a new poll, nearly half of the land of the free thinks that Muslim Americans' civil liberties should be restricted, with a stalwart 27% supporting the federal registration of all Muslim Americans. According to the findings of the... [ Continue reading: ]  Don't Bum to the Monks Thailand's National Buddhism Office has proposed that Thai cigarette packs carry an additional consumer warning, that "'Donating cigarettes to monks is a sin.'"... [ Continue reading: ] If the Wall Ain't Broke Florida State Senator Daniel Webster said last week that he is "exploring the possibility" of proposing a constitutional amendment to repeal Florida's separation of church and state. The proposal comes in the wake of a November Florida court ruling against... [ Continue reading: ] A.C. On behalf of a grateful nation-- On behalf of a grateful nation-- On behalf of a grateful nation-- Copy, paste, print. Rumsfeld admits he has used a machine to sign condolence letters to the relatives of the 1,300 U.S. war... [ Continue reading: ] $132 k? World's wealthiest church weighs in on AIDS with... $132,000? AP reports that the Vatican has established a foundation to help AIDS victims to which it urges people to contribute even if they don't agree with the Church's opposition to condoms.... [ Continue reading: ] Sad Christmas Story Another Christmas story: Desperate Boston Catholics plead with Bishop Sean O'Malley to keep their church open for just one more Christmas. Movie rights, anyone?... [ Continue reading: ] Santa Wars We can't stand to read yet another story about the battle for Christmas, but if you're convinced that American Christians are victims, or that Christmas is a Christian conspiracy, here's some fuel for your indignation from The Washington Post's Alan... [ Continue reading: ] Free Market God Since the discovery of God on google, the Almighty is suffering in this new free market of the divine, reports Mark Carr. God down 22 points; Satan up 26, evil climbs 64.... [ Continue reading: ] Those Were the Days "Some draw parallels to the profound societal divisions of the Vietnam era; others audaciously compare our age to the Third Reich. A flurry of new books about the Founding Fathers argue that the rise of George W. Bush and his army of conservative Christians was foretold by the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But none of those go back far enough. If we really want to know the history we've been doomed to repeat, we have to return 900 years, to medieval Paris..." [ Continue reading: ]  Just Like a Greek Tragedy Not content with proving the existence of God, Google aims to recreate His mind.... [ Continue reading: ] Mob Morality Stoner jokes about biblical precedents for wedding-party hook-ups; a Catholic comic speculating on her "get-out-of-hell-free card"; Will and Grace's shallow materialist Karen musing about transforming an historic church into a gay bar; a Scrubs character telling his fiancee it "sucks"... [ Continue reading: ] Choose Your Ideology Yellow Pages Two boycotts, two stories. GetReligion runs two "put your money where your morals are" stories side-by-side: one on the California Committee to Save Merry Christmas, which has urged a boycott of Federated Department Stores for taking the Christ out of... [ Continue reading: ] Away in a Cowshed The 600-member charismatic New Life Church in Minsk has been banned from meeting under Belarus' religion law. The church, which bought a cowshed on the outskirts of the city two years ago, intending to rebuild it as a church, has... [ Continue reading: ] Teaching England to Swing Former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, has urged Britain's conservative party to follow the lead of U.S. Republicans in tapping the "values vote" by appealing to the social conservativism of the Labour Party's working-class base. "'To crudely import Bible Belt... [ Continue reading: ] Plano Clear for I Heart Jesus Pens A federal judge in Texas has issued a temporary restraining order against the Plano school district, prohibiting it from interfering with any students who wish to distribute religious messages at today's holiday parties. Parents in Plano, with the help of... [ Continue reading: ]  The Robes of Church and State A circuit court judge in the Alabama town of Andalusia, Ashley McKathan, has begun wearing a custom-made judicial robe, embroidered with the Ten Commandments on his chest, to court. "'Certainly I wanted to make a point,'" said McKathan. "'I think... [ Continue reading: ] The Secular Experiment What's freethought got to do with it? Brendan Boyle reviews Susan Jacoby's Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. [ Continue reading: ] God is in the Retails By Omri Elisha: I first witnessed a Christian music festival in the summer of 1988. I remember standing in a sea of born-agains as they waved their raised arms, swayed their bodies, and bobbed their heads, while rock bands with big hair belted out pop-rock anthems in the name of Jesus. I was a teenager at the time, working as correspondent for a PBS youth journalism organization. Throughout our filming, my producer pressured me to ask questions about the money angle: How was the festival paid for? Where did all the proceeds go? How much money do Christian rock stars make? My producer was baffled that so much consumerism could take place at a religious festival. She believed that there had to be a hidden story behind it, something provocative, something scandalous... [ Continue reading: ] Try Again, Winston. How Many Fingers? Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals and James Dobson break down the Ukraine situation for us: Western individualism vs. Eastern totalitarianism, Western philosophy vs. communism, Christianity vs. atheism. It's an "old-fashioned struggle" of "Christian ideology" vs. "old fashioned... [ Continue reading: ] All Over the Map "Dismayed by Christianity's diminishing influence in the postmodern world, 24-7 dreams of sparking a worldwide revival among the generation that is coming of age. Its goal: to turn the tide in youth culture from what Greig calls a 'godless, materialistic, self-destructive force' to a generation that loves and worships Jesus. "For centuries, Christians were among the major architects of culture," Greig reminded 100 members of his flock at 24-7's annual conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in September 2003. 'Today,' he challenges, 'are we even on the map?'" Um, yeah, dude -- you pretty much own it. Kimberley Sevcik swallows some youth ministry Kool-aid for Salon, but her report on raver missionaries in clubland is thorough and worth Salon's annoying mandatory pop-ups. [ Continue reading: ] How Many Fingers, Winston? Concerned Women of America hails death sentence for Scott Peterson as a victory for pro-life philosophy.... [ Continue reading: ] When I Was a Boy... "Terrorism is the war of the poor. War is the terrorism of the rich." Who said that? Noam? Zinn? Che? Of course -- ultra-right, traditionalist Catholic Pat Buchanan, taking his cues from the pope. "We Catholics were raised, in days... [ Continue reading: ] Bush & Gibson, Sittin' in a Tree Mel Gibson whomps George W. Bush by 11 points in the race for the Religion Newswriters Association "Religion Newsmaker of the Year." But the RNA fixes the results, granting W. equal billing with Gibson's Passion in the top slot of their top religion stories of 2004! Well, it's more complicated than that, and the RNA has more integrity than certain Supreme Courts we could name. The organization of 260 voting-eligible religion newswriters asked members to rank their top 20 choices, and the results are not surprising. After W. and Mel in a tie comes gay marriage (that's the way it happened; we're just reporting the results), followed by communion-denying Catholic bishops, angstful Anglicans, the pledge case, etc., etc. The only selection we're disappointed in is #12, which under the lede of anti-Christian persecution notes as a top religion story of the year the fact that "in Iraq, a four-person Southern Baptist humanitarian team is killed." Terrible, indeed. We've heard that some other folks have had a bad time of it in Iraq, as well. [ Continue reading: ] Just One More Christmas Closer to the Grave Denver Post's Eric Gorski scores a holiday story we haven't seen before: "Blue Christmas" church services for those who find the season sad. "At Heritage United Methodist Church... [t]he music minister will skip 'Joy to the World' in favor of... [ Continue reading: ] Some of His Best Friends Are Jews The standard test for hard-to-detect bigotry is to ask yourself, "How would that sound if I replaced [X-ethnic, religious, social group] with 'the Jews'?" But William Donohue, the influential leader of the Catholic League, has short-circuited that test by getting... [ Continue reading: ]  Who's Your Jesus? Douglas LeBlanc, of GetReligion, sees Ray Waddle's four "Dueling Messiahs" ("Free-market Messiah," "Peace-and-Justice Jesus," "Silence of the Lamb (of God)" and "Redeemer Revisited") and raises him a "Cool Older Brother" and "Live Long and Prosper Jesus"...... [ Continue reading: ] Christmas in Iraq Foreign Minister of Iraq, Hoshyar Zebari, promises the Pope in a private meeting that Christians will be protected by the Iraqi government. The Catholic News Service also reports that a number of Iraqi Christian leaders have asked their congregations to... [ Continue reading: ] Intelligent Design Lawsuit in Dover Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the A.C.L.U. have filed a lawsuit against the Dover, Pennsylvania School Board for its decision to introduce Intelligent Design curriculum to high school biology classes. The groups argue that the board... [ Continue reading: ] Christ in Japan In an alternate ending to Jesus' life, the son of God escaped the Romans, fled across Asia, and settled in the mountains of Northern Japan, where he married, had kids, and died at the age of 106. The Independent's David... [ Continue reading: ] The Christmas Cause The political season is over; long live the political season! With yard signs -- "We Believe in God. Merry Christmas." -- and expensive church advertising campaigns directing the faithful to shop only in stores that say "Merry Christmas." Rev. Patrick... [ Continue reading: ] Bush Book Banned Egyptian censors have recommended that the country's government ban a biogaphy of the prophet, The Life of Mohammad, which was written in 1830 by a scholar named George Bush. No reason was given for the ban, but a number of... [ Continue reading: ]  Shepard Reports Called "Anti-Christian" NBC News has refused a request from Focus on the Family that Today Show host Katie Couric apologize for "anti-Christian" remarks following the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. The FotF request came after a November 20/20 program featuring interviews with... [ Continue reading: ] Christianophobic Continent a "Christian Club" Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan challenged the E.U. to admit Turkey, or admit it was a "Christian Club" that was opposed to Islam. Erdogan was also quoted as saying that the E.U.'s failure to admit Turkey might provoke an... [ Continue reading: ] Exodus from Bethlehem? Mayor of Bethlehem, Hanner Nasir, has criticized the Israeli occupation as an oppression and "offense to human dignity" that is causing a Christian exodus from the town. "'Each year I try not to be gloomy in my Christmas message,'" said... [ Continue reading: ] Wolfe's Morality Play Wins "Bad Sex" Award What's wrong with Charlotte Simmons, heroine of Tom Wolfe's latest novel? David Brooks bravely defied the bobos last month, by proclaiming Wolfe's southern belle Charlotte a victim thrown into an amoral (presumably northeastern) college universe where chivalry and character-building are... [ Continue reading: ] Gold Star Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet's Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible named one of six on Publishers Weekly's best religion books of the year.... [ Continue reading: ] Hacking, Why Not? Washington Post reports on a jailhouse memoir by Indonesian terrorist Imam Samudra, responsible for the Bali bombing two years ago. Although there are only 4,000 copies in print, the Post hypes a chapter titled "Hacking, Why Not?" as indicative of... [ Continue reading: ] Babalicious Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet: We’d pulled into town a few days before to check in for a week’s stay at the Meher Spiritual Center, the “home in the West” of the late Indian guru Meher Baba, believed by many to be the “Avatar of the Age,” the latest in an endless parade of “corporeal manifestations of the divine.” Baba “dropped his body” in 1969, but as seen in the videos frequently shown at the center, he’d been a manifestation with a kind, almost silly manner; one of his most popular teachings consisted of pulling a hard candy from his pocket and winging it at one of his followers... Read "Baba, Baba, Everywhere!" [ Continue reading: ] Holy Cold War With Hot Spice 10 am, Eastern, on WNYC: New Republic editor Peter Beinart argues that Democrats can regain power by taking the same militant attitude toward Islam that they took against Communism. Oh, we mean "political Islam." Muslims are just fine -- cute,... [ Continue reading: ] Six Degrees of Fundamentalism A comic book -- ahem, "graphic novel" -- leads The Revealer's 2004 list of favorite books about, concerned with, or shadowed by fundamentalism... [ Continue reading: ]  Wash Away Your Sins Cleansing Bar We saw this advertised as "the perfect Christmas gift for Pagans," but the manufacturers of the Wash Away Your Sins Cleansing Bar (with "Tempting Do-It-Again Scent") say it's good for anyone who needs a quick and easy way to repent.... [ Continue reading: ] Hey! Look Over There... Not one to rest on his laurels after a job well done, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "taking time out from running the war in Iraq to defend his beloved scouting movement from assault by a liberal civil rights... [ Continue reading: ] Equal Rights v. Guys Who Speak for God, Pt. 58974 The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) testified before the Ugandan parliament that a domestic relations bill recognizing a woman's co-ownership of family land, and another proposal calling for the abolition of polygamy, were declarations of hostility to Islamic faith and... [ Continue reading: ] Vic Venom Forgiven In the 1990s Vince Russo (a.k.a. Vic Venom or Vicious Vincent) was one of the most successful pro-wrestling writers in the business, dealing in story-lines about "sex, violence, drugs, nudity, homosexuality, transvestites, men beating women, the killing of household pets,... [ Continue reading: ] Bruce Walker's Nuclear Solution How can Christian conservative fight the left when all these Cossack-like activist judges are helping to oppress the faithful majority with an imposed separation of church and state -- ahem, we mean "imposed atheism"? Bruce Walker of the conservative op-ed... [ Continue reading: ] We Should Also Ban Transporter Beams "[Anthony] Romero of the A.C.L.U. said that beyond filing legal challenges, liberals needed to appropriate the language of morality from Christian conservatives to capture the popular imagination," reports The NYT. We think that's an odd concession of the media's power... [ Continue reading: ] These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For The Washington Post's Alan Cooperman pays for a Key West junket with apuff piece about Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, the man behind the God in the president's rhetoric. "At a meeting with reporters in Key West, Fla., on Monday and Tuesday [an annual "retreat" hosted by the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center], Gerson, who has crafted almost all of Bush's major speeches since 2000 but has rarely spoken to the media, defended the president's religious rhetoric. Although the session was off the record, Gerson subsequently agreed to allow some of his main points to appear in print." Sure, why not? Not as if there'd be any serious accountability. "[O]n the whole, the speechwriter argued, Bush's references to the role of providence in human affairs have been carefully calibrated and fully within the tradition of American civic religion." Leaving aside Bush's critics, if that assertion is so, why do so many millions of Bush supporters see in their man a servant of God unlike any previous occupant of the oval office? And why does Prof. David Domke's analysis of 70 years of presidential rhetoric reveal a marked shift toward the prophetic in Bush's speeches? [ Continue reading: ] Born Smart "If Billy Graham had been born mean, we all would have been in a lot of trouble." -- Martin Marty, one of the great public theologians and historians of the last 50 years, speaks to Krista Tippett on Speaking of Faith. It's a great program, but if you can't listen, don't miss the site -- Speaking of Faith offers a brilliant annotated guide to the discussion that ought to become the model for radio on the web. [ Continue reading: ] Am Not! Are So! Christian media junkies have recently been gloating over the news that longtime atheist philosopher Antony Flew had changed his mind. Now atheists strike back, with the latest bulletin of Rationalist International declaring that their man remains a defender of the... [ Continue reading: ]  Serbian Orthodox Church Sues The Bishop of Serbia's Orthodox Church has brought a lawsuit against England, France, Germany and Italy, for failing to protect Orthodox churches and religious monuments from Albanian attacks since Nato troops took control of Kosovo in 1999.... [ Continue reading: ] Church-State Divisions in Canada Paul Matthews, of Maisonneuve, gives a editorial-round-up after Canada's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is constitutional (the ruling guaranteed religious institutions' right to refuse to perform gay marriages), and finds that Canada may be more like America, in terms... [ Continue reading: ] So Many Slights, So Little Time 'Tis the season for hysterical op-eds, like Deborah Simmons' Christ-our-of-Christmas lament in The Washington Times. It's a popular opinion-page topic this holiday season, but one almost uniformly argued by hacks like Simmons, who blends misinformation (Christmas carols were not banned... [ Continue reading: ] Corpus Christi A Scottish Christian group, Christian Voice, has urged police in the town of Fife to prosecute a student theatre company, Zuloo, for blasphemy for producing an American play that depicts Jesus and his followers as practicing homosexuals. The play, Corpus... [ Continue reading: ]  Special Ops Bible Chuck Currie points to this Sojourners story on a new custom-line of Bibles that the Defense Department has commissioned for its elite U.S. Special Operations Command. The new Bibles will feature a custom-designed cover, special Army-designed color photos and text... [ Continue reading: ] Stained Glass Ceiling Who leads the choir, teaches Sunday School, helps in the kitchen, and stands beside the pastor or rabbi at the end of a church or synagogue service, when the pastor or rabbi is a woman? The husband? Sometimes. Robin Galiano... [ Continue reading: ] "Immaculate Contraception" A British ad campaign for emergency birth control pills -- "Immaculate contraception? If only." -- has been abandoned as offensive to religious sensibilities, and will be investigated by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority.... [ Continue reading: ] Bush Admin Jumps In The Bush administration has filed arguments urging the Supreme Court to allow Ten Commandments displays on government property when the justices rule on the case next year.... [ Continue reading: ] Anti-Semitism in Australia Attacks on Australian Jews, synagogues and property have risen to record levels in the past year due in part to the growing anti-Semitic Internet presence.... [ Continue reading: ] Faster Buddha, Kill! Kill! Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau talk to CBC's Mary Hynes about how to kill Buddha."There's an affliction, a malaise, that spreads over the media when it talks about religion: a sense of worthiness, of respectability... " [ Continue reading: ] Empty Rhetoric Makes Revealer Forget Its Values Virginia's Republican Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore says he's running for governor on moral values -- banning gay marriage, ditching a law that limits gun purchases to one a month, and ignoring the part he played in the state's nasty... [ Continue reading: ] G-d. G-d, Can You Hear Me? Oy, I'm in Utah... The Chicago Tribune's Bonnie Miller Rubin must have been stuck in Salt Lake City for too long: Non-LDSers seem to all look alike to her. In her puff piece on Lubavitcher Rabbi Benny Zippel's mission to Utah's tiny Jewish population,... [ Continue reading: ] No News is No News Reuters reports that South African President Thabo Mbeki has come up with a peace plan for Ivory Coast's warring Christians and Muslims. But the editor apparently didn't think the details were worth column inches.... [ Continue reading: ]  Dinosaurs Were Created, Too "Uneasy answering questions about radiocarbon dating? Rock layers? Natural selection? Do you want to believe in six literal days, but you’re still confused about the big bang or Grand Canyon? You’ll find answers here!" Metafilter plans a day-trip to "the... [ Continue reading: ] Same-Sex Unions Get Common-Law Coverage in Israel Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has reversed his predecessor's policy on same-sex unions, declaring that gay couples should be recognized by the state and given the same legal standing as common-law spouses in financial concerns such as taxation and inheritance.... [ Continue reading: ] "Warrior Monks." Cool. "'Warrior Monk' Sees His Calling on the Front," by The Washington Post's Jackie Spinner, is the worst kind of religion reporting and war reporting. We suspect it's supposed to be so "gritty" and "real" and respectful of the troops that... [ Continue reading: ] Immigrant Jesus Finds a Home The fiberglass statue of Jesus that washed up on the bank of the Rio Grande, and was named "Christ of the Undocumented Worker," has found a permanent home at the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Refuge: long a haven... [ Continue reading: ] Sign O' the Times Pop culture participates in "The Great Relearning": Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell has signed on with Christian music label Reunion Records, shortly after Mary J. Blige announced that Christ has improved her looks.... [ Continue reading: ] Brave New Blacklist The on-screen version of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials -- a battle story against church and a God-figure, "the Authority" -- is to be purged of references to both God and Church, out of fear that the movie would be... [ Continue reading: ] Media Excretions The Village Voice tears the Rev. Al Sharpton a new one. Hard to tell what stinks worse -- the Rev.'s flatulent grandstanding, or the Voice's sewer-style "investigation." And on the subject of NYC alt weeklies and revolting excretions, The New... [ Continue reading: ] Let's All Give Ourselves a Big Round of Enemies Ex-priest James Carroll sermonizes in The Boston Globe: "The United States has given itself an enemy that shows by its central tactic that it is fighting for God. Americans, meanwhile, are so confused about religion that we have just been... [ Continue reading: ] OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPADEE DO Modern mythology: A newly discovered trove of photographs by Roald Dahl -- dreamer of Oompa Loompas, giant peaches, and Willy Wonka -- reveals the genesis of his creations: "It's jolly good fun photographing such things as the brain of an earth worm," wrote the myth-maker as a young man. [ Continue reading: ] Answer the Question White House press briefing, 12/06/04. Russell Mokhiber, editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter, takes Bush's faith seriously. Too bad Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, doesn't... [ Continue reading: ]  Schadenfreude Liberal mega-bloggers are indulging in some misplaced schadenfreude over the sad and ugly story of an Iowa Assemblies of God youth pastor charged with the sexual exploitation of a child -- a 17-year-old congregant -- the day after Bush introduced... [ Continue reading: ] Nobody's Monk Imagine the sad monk's tale behind this Craigslist posting...... [ Continue reading: ] Christianophobia-mania Is "Christianophobia" on par with anti-Semitism and anti-Islam hatred? The Vatican has belatedly announced its diplomatic campaign seeking U.N. recognition of discrimination against and persecution of Christians. But not all Christian groups are happy with the new language, and not... [ Continue reading: ] Santa at Satan's Grotto A "Devil Santa" in Satan's Grotto, at York Dungeon in England, has angered church leaders who oppose the alterna-Santa, his gifts of severed fingers and the grotto's guestbook scroll of signed-away souls.... [ Continue reading: ] Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas We've gotten some flak in the past when we wrote about the Christian cartoon, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Adventure" (about Cristian Kid Davey Hansen and his talking dog, Goliath), so it's with respect and goodwill that we note that the... [ Continue reading: ] Teaching Evolution to Tomorrow's Creationist Science Teachers The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss profiles David Jackson, a professor of science education at the University of Georgia's College of Education, who teaches evolution to the next generation of middle-school educators -- half of whom believe that God created the... [ Continue reading: ] "Gott Mit Uns" We weren't the only ones put off by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's creative Holocaust history. (Recap: Scalia implies European separation of church and state helped create the Holocaust.) Maureen Farrell, of BuzzFlash also takes the judge to task: "Does... [ Continue reading: ] Magnificat Meal Movement "'God is love and you can't run away from him like this. We want her to come back to God and to bring the money back.'" An internal dispute over money is placing the "Magnificat Meal Movement" (MMM) back in... [ Continue reading: ] Fervent Passions, Subtle Assumptions Iran's former militants are today's journalistic reformers. "Hojatolislam Mousavi-Khoeiniha, for instance, often described as the 'spiritual mentor' of the hostage-takers as well as their link to Ayatollah Khomeini, founded the leading reformist daily Salam in the early 1990s," write Bill... [ Continue reading: ] Ritz, Vodka, & Shmaltz The secret to eternal life: "That evening, [Rabbi Chitrik] did not touch the cakes, nuts or Ritz crackers that were on the table along with ancient Jewish texts. There was also a bottle of vodka, and Rabbi Chitrik clasped a... [ Continue reading: ]  "When the holy mother sizzle is the only sound you hear" Golden Palace, the casino that bought the "Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich" for $28,000, is capitalizing on its purchase with a "Make Your Own Sandwich" option ("Your Face Here"), and a signature song (to the tune of "Do They Know... [ Continue reading: ] 9/11 Buddha It is only in the last few pages of An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World that Pankaj Mishra directly addresses the concerns of his title, and here the “world” is defined as the spectacle of 9/11... Jeff Sharlet reviews Mishra in New York. [ Continue reading: ] Andy Norman Saves Christmas Andy Norman, a Chicago lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), is on the case at McHenry County school, where the kindergarten through second grades recently put on a holiday show that featured Santa Claus rather than Jesus in its... [ Continue reading: ] Blog Wars Are Lame, Dan Is The Revealer a liberal rag? Dan Knauss, at The New Pantagruel is figuring it out in true American style: with a reader poll.... [ Continue reading: ] Peace Birds in Thailand Violence returned to southern Thailand shortly after the army dropped a "peace offering" of 100 million origami birds into soothe the troubled region, where more than 500 people have been killed this year in religion-related violence between Muslim rebels and... [ Continue reading: ] Free Market Christ In the Riverview Community Bank in Otsego, Minnesota, the staff pray with customers -- in offices or at the drive-through window -- under the direction of bank "pastor," Chuck Ripka, who says God spoke to him on the bank's opening... [ Continue reading: ] The Black Seal Blackadder actor, Rowan Atkinson ("Heaven is for people who like the sort of things that go on in heaven."), is to lead a coalition of comics, writers and scholars against a new British bill that would punish extremists who incite... [ Continue reading: ]  Embedded Myth Dahr Jamail is an "unembedded" journalist in Iraq, reporting for his own blog and an Alaskan Weekly. He claims that "the Shia/Sunni rift is largely a CIA generated myth. There are countless tribes and marriages alike that are both Shia/Sunni.... [ Continue reading: ] Your One-Stop Demon Shop Melchom is the paymaster of civil servants in Hell. Murmur, paradoxically, is announced by trumpets. Ishtar once ripped out the teeth of the lion. For more, go to Krista Baker's guide to demons of the world... [ Continue reading: ] Falwell Took 13 Years to Decide He Was Straight The Revealer has been under fire for publishing the United Church of Christ's press release about NBC's and CBS's refusal to run their ad depicting a gay couple, turned away from a church guarded by bouncers, finding welcome at a... [ Continue reading: ]  If You Can't Beat 'Em, Make 'Em Join You Fast on the heels of the recent victories for "Intelligent Design" curriculum in public schools, comes the increasing popularity of this creationist meme, today transmitted by Rod Tussing, in The Arizona Republic: "Darwinism is an 'interpretation' of the world and... [ Continue reading: ] No God for You! In ruling that a "Torah-observering" Georgia prisoner may wear his yarmulke at all times and be served kosher food, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has become the fourth federal court to uphold the Religious Land Use... [ Continue reading: ] Help Us Make a Better List The New York Times Book Review has just published its annual list of 100 notable books from the past year, and it includes only three nonfiction titles directly addressing religion -- Robert Alter's new translation of the Pentateuch, a worthy but hardly groundbreaking volume; a biography of Graham Greene, whom some consider to have been a religious writer; and Tony Hendra's Father Joe, a memoir of a priest who inspired him -- but didn't prevent him from becoming estranged from his daughter, who has very publicly declared that the book is a lie that covers up Hendra's sexual predations. A few books deal with religion in passing -- Tom Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas; two more tomes on the Holocaust; and several books about the "war on terror" that treat religion as nearly irrelevant. Meanwhile, publishing about religion is at an all-time high; the U.S. is engaged in a global conflict that many abroad and at home see as a holy war; and the major issues of the day revolve around questions many, if not most, interpret through religious lenses. So help The Revealer make a better list. Send us your suggestions of books about "religion," broadly-defined. Books journalists should have on their shelves. Books religious people should read to learn about other people's faiths. Books that reveal religion in the world, and the world in religion [ Continue reading: ]  Gods of Nationalism Kalyan Singh, leader of the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), today deposed before the Liberhan Commission, a 12-year old commission investigating the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque by a crowd of nearly one million Hindu nationalists that also killed... [ Continue reading: ] Tutu Scolds ANC Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and South African President Thabo Mbeki have become involved in a public dispute this week, after Tutu called the African National Congress (ANC; Mbeki's party) "elitist" for not spreading wealth beyond the top... [ Continue reading: ] Flu and the God Gap "Those who supped from the chalice weekly or even daily were no more likely to get sick than those who got drunk the night before and slept in Sunday morning." Jeremy Lott at Get Religion investigates the dangers of the... [ Continue reading: ] Middle of the Road Bear Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan (Rowan Bear) Williams has written to Anglican Primates, urging conservatives to change their attitudes towards gay people, and liberals to abide by the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution on human sexuality, which states that the practice... [ Continue reading: ] Saudi Arabia: Country on a Hill A Pakistani political party, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, dropped its demands for the inclusion of religion on passports -- after having claimed that the exclusion of the category meant Pakistan was going secular -- when Pakistani minister of the state of... [ Continue reading: ] Theo-Cons in Europe The Guardian's Ian Traynor and John Hooper survey the church-state separation across the European Union and predict that, if secularists have won all the battles -- no special mention of Christianity in the E.U. Constitution; the rejection of Rocco Buttiglione... [ Continue reading: ]  Against Spirituality Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet on the CBC (Canadian public radio) program "Tapestry," Sunday, December 5, at 2:05 p.m. ET, AT, CT, 2:35 NT, 3:05 PT, and 4:05 MT on CBC Radio One. Mary Hynes lets Sharlet and Killing the Buddha co-author Peter Manseau explain why they don't like the term "spirituality." Check here on Sunday to listen online. [ Continue reading: ] Who You Callin' Crazy? A college classmate of the Feminarian's fell out in the spirit. Feminarian did not. Pastor decided Feminarian had problems. If this makes no sense to you -- if it reads as if we're writing in tongues -- go here for... [ Continue reading: ] FBI v. Quakers Reuters reports an ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in regard to what it says is FBI surveillance of peaceful protest and religious groups. The real story here, however, will be in the response to the request. John Ashcroft's... [ Continue reading: ] Lesbian Methodist Convicted Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud, a lesbian minister in the United Methodist Church, has been convicted by a clerical jury of violating church law for living in an openly homosexual relationship, marking the first time the Methodist church had convicted a... [ Continue reading: ] Let's Pretend They Don't Exist Birmingham News: "An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries." Interesting. Why limit ourselves to fiction? We could burn all books featuring gay characters. First... [ Continue reading: ] Cultists Are People, Too Gal Beckerman: In 1976, The Saturday Evening Post ran an article sure to startle a group of readers who could probably do without something else to worry about. The story, “Our Son’s New ‘Heavenly Father,’” seemed a direct hit on Jewish mothers. Lotti Robins, a member of that long-suffering species, chronicled her son Arthur’s descent into heresy and then his return back into the fold. To Robins’ despair, her son Arthur had joined the Reverend Sun Myong Moon’s Unification Church. She described how her heart was broken the day young Arthur came home and denounced his conservative Judaism, informing his mama that, “Reverend Moon and his wife are now my true heavenly parents.” [ Continue reading: ] Tinker, Tailor, Baker, Spy The Lizard King returns: We mean that as no disrespect in regard to James A. Baker III, one of the cleverest Washington hands alive, who turns his unblinking gaze today on Bush's Middle East policy. Just what's really going on... [ Continue reading: ] War Stories FreeMedia.org may sounds like some kind of anarchist indy media scheme. And it is -- a Christian conservative, anarchist, indy media scheme by Gospel Communications to provide free programming for the military. Our picks: Heart of the Race, a 1980 "documentary" of dayglo psychedelia designed to help Christians fight boredom; Return to Vietnam, in which secret arms dealer Oliver North helps "bring personal closure to the suffering that befell all who were a part of the country's longest and most controversial war"; and Compassionate Capitalism, in which Rich DeVos, founder of the marketing cult Amway, tells us about the true heart of Christianity -- with the help of Helen Keller, Paul Collins ("internationally known black portrait artist"), and Shaq! [ Continue reading: ] CBS, NBC, Stand in the Church Door Too hot for TV, but buzzworthy news: CNN reports on NBC's and CBS's refusal to broadcast a liberal church ad that suggests Christ welcomes everyone. Reason? "It was against our policy of accepting advocacy advertising," said CBS. That sounds like... [ Continue reading: ] Christian Buttons Pro-life groups are offended by a line of Planned Parenthood holiday cards which celebrate "'Choice on Earth,'" which Jim Sedlak, executive directive of Stop Planned Parenthood International, characterizes as "'bigoted, anti-religion [and] anti-God,'" and intentionally pushing Christian buttons. Planned Parenthood... [ Continue reading: ]  Fiddler Beneath the Gun Impaling a head on a pole and putting a cigarette in his mouth? That was pretty bad. Audio tape of "an Israeli officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying he would have shot... [ Continue reading: ] They're Gonna Ban the Bible! Pt. 3 A week after the Alliance Defense Fund helped California teacher Steven Williams sue his school for alleged anti-Christian bias -- claiming that Williams had been singled out for censorship as a Christian and barred by the principal from distributing any... [ Continue reading: ] Sharia Law in England According to a recent Guardian/ICM poll, 61% of British Muslims want Islamic courts, operating on sharia law, to be introduced into England to settle civil cases concerning family disputes, divorce, custody and inheritance, "'so long as the penalties did not... [ Continue reading: ] Faith Deep as TV What's wrong with this sentence: "Yet religious sentiment runs deep enough that Friday night comes in Italy with the [TV] adventures of Don Matteo, handsome crime-solving priest." If the fact of a TV show's popularity doesn't strike you as serious... [ Continue reading: ] Jesus Christ: Too Hot for Network TV "'Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations,'" reads an explanation from CBS, "'and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks.'" CBS and NBC refuse to air the "Still Speaking" commercial for the United Church of Christ, deeming its message of inclusiveness "too controversial." [ Continue reading: ] World AIDS Prayers in Russia The Russian Orthodox Church is marking World AIDS Day with a large number of priests leading prayers for the health of HIV/AIDS sufferers. Several Orthodox Churches in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have begun performing these prayers every month, rather than... [ Continue reading: ] Hate Crime in Virginia In a suspected hate crime, a Sikh-owned gas station was burnt in Virginia and the property was defaced with ethnic slurs.... [ Continue reading: ] |