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   What's That You Say? Blogger Slacktivist takes one sentence from Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals -- "They're pro-free markets, they're pro-private property. ... That's what evangelical stands for." -- and runs it through the wringer of actual scripture and... [ Continue reading: ]  Who Will Cry for a Witch? Lilith Saintcrow of God and Consequences reveals, with the help of the Indianapolis Star, an excellent religion story -- a judge forbidding Wiccan parents from teaching their kids their religion because it's not "mainstream" -- and Jason Pitzl-Waters of Wildhunt... [ Continue reading: ] Well, Isn't That Nice? Blogger Too Beautiful catches an important omission in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram profile of controversial Bush judicial nominee Priscilla Owen. In what appears to be an attempt to humanize the widely-feared nominee, reporter Dave Montgomery notes Owens' involvement in her... [ Continue reading: ] Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch -- Part II Jeff Sharlet: Harper's has posted the entirety of my feature from its May issue, "Soldiers of Christ: Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch," the first half of which I posted here on The Revealer. If you already read that and want to skip directly to the second half, scroll down to the picture of Pontius Pilate at right, or search the phrase "last election," and you'll be whisked there right away. [ Continue reading: ] Don't Be Weird Michael Roberts of Denver's Westword picks up on some of the media aftermath of my Harper's feature on New Life Church in Colorado. But "aftermath" isn't quite the right word -- despite Pastor Ted Haggard's disavowals of his importance, he's... [ Continue reading: ]  The God That Takes Sufjan Stevens: All the glory that the Lord has made / And the complications when I see His face / In the morning in the window / All the glory when He took our place / But He took my shoulders, and He shook my face / And He takes and He takes and He takes [ Continue reading: ] Making It In America We received an unusual artifact of religious media in the mail today -- a stealth Christian campaign for the new Russell Crowe movie, Cinderella Man. The movie, as far as we know, is not a "Christian" movie; but Grace Hill... [ Continue reading: ] Open Source Radio Sharlet: One of the smartest voices in radio is launching a new public radio show -- an experiment of sorts -- on May 30, and The Revealer is delighted to be a part of its first week of programming (I'll be a guest on June 2nd). Sharlet: One of the smartest voices in radio is launching a new public radio show -- an experiment of sorts -- on May 30, and The Revealer is delighted to be a part of its first week of programming (I'll be a guest on June 2nd). The voice belongs to Chris Lydon, the former host of the The Connection, and the program will be called Open Source. It'll debut on Boston's WGBH as well as public radio stations in Seattle and Salt Lake City, and we predict it'll grow quickly from that base. My favorite radio producer, David Miller, will be working on the show. Listen to some of Dave's stuff on NPR: "Politics and the Prayer Group"; "Finding Love, Late in Life" (no religion; lots of sex). Dave has nice things to say about me, too, on Open Source's blog -- which, as part of the experiment, will be part of the show. A lot of shows use blogs now, but Lydon will be posting his topics and his guests well in advance, so that listeners can actually help shape the show rather than just respond. "Open Source will not be a show about blogs," explains Lydon. "It will use blogs to be a show about the world." And Lydon goes into more depth about the Open Source idea here, naming as ancestors -- as proto-bloggers -- Tom Paine, I.F. Stone, and Emerson. The voice belongs to Chris Lydon, the former host of the The Connection, and the program will be called Open Source. It'll debut on Boston's WGBH as well as public radio stations in Seattle and Salt Lake City, and we predict it'll grow quickly from that base. My favorite radio producer, David Miller, will be working on the show. Listen to some of Dave's stuff on NPR: "Politics and the Prayer Group"; "Finding Love, Late in Life" (no religion; lots of sex). Dave has nice things to say about me, too, on Open Source's blog -- which, as part of the experiment, will be part of the show. A lot of shows use blogs now, but Lydon will be posting his topics and his guests well in advance, so that listeners can actually help shape the show rather than just respond. "Open Source will not be a show about blogs," explains Lydon. "It will use blogs to be a show about the world." And Lydon goes into more depth about the Open Source idea here, naming as ancestors -- as proto-bloggers -- Tom Paine, I.F. Stone, and Emerson. [ Continue reading: ] The End of the World For Dummies A call from a radio producer friend about a week-long "End of the World" special his show is planning (all scenarios discussed) reminded me of an odd and entertaining little book I've had on my desk for some time now, Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual of the End of the World, by Jason Boyett. Doomsayers, religion writers, and religion snickerers alike will benefit from Boyett's "Apocalyptionary," which is an A-Z, slightly snarky glossary of the language with which we know our cosmic comeuppance. [ Continue reading: ]  Now Krusty Is A Man Top 10 TV b'nai mitzvahs of all time! But they're all out of order. How can Diff'rent Stroke's Arnold's almost bar mitzvah -- #5 -- rank over Krusty the Klown's adult bar mitzvah on The Simpsons -- perversely ranked at #10? [ Continue reading: ] Santorum for Choice Media Matters says The New York Times left out not only context for Sen. Rick Santorum's ahistorical American history, but a key fact from his own history: Santorum was pro-choice before he got into power. Unfortunately, Media Matters doesn't offer... [ Continue reading: ] Prayer Muckraker Terry Donata inteviews evangelical leader Brian McLaren on postmodernism, post-colonialism, and what might be called muckraking prayer: "One of the things we're going to do [in response to Darfur] is five Sundays of outdoor public worship in Washington, D.C. where I live, and the second week, we're going to be in front of the National Press Club. And we're going to publicly, in prayer, thank the journalists who have covered Darfur in trying to keep this on the national consciousness. But we're also going to pray by name for all the news directors who are giving us 20 hours of Michael Jackson coverage a week and seconds, or minutes or nothing in Darfur coverage. Those are moral decisions." [ Continue reading: ]  Love God, Or Love Your Ass "If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates you might, in fact, have sex with it." -- anti-abortion activist Neal Horsley on the dangers of godless moral relativism and his former passion for his mule, on the Alan Colmes Show. Hear more. (HT: God & Consequences) [ Continue reading: ] The Truth About "Jim Wallis" What does the NYTimes' Elisabeth Bumiller do when presented with a story that reveals cracks in the Christian right? Why, she calls Jim Wallis, of course. Wallis, who possesses the power to channel the thoughts of several million non-Republican evangelicals,... [ Continue reading: ] Holy Ivy Holly Berman follows the money in the NYT's big story on religion and class. [ Continue reading: ]   Episcopal Smackdown! Is Lauren Winner's new book on Real Sex (spoiler: only hetero, married whoopee) actually creeping fundamentalism? Astrid Storm thinks so. Storm, an Episcopal priest, takes on Winner, an Episcopal priest-to-be and one of the bright young stars of intellectual Christian... [ Continue reading: ]  Six-Pointed Star Sol Star of HBO's Deadwood "may not be the first Jewish character to appear in a Western," writes Stephen Vider, "but his bold, matter-of-fact portrayal, played neither for laughs nor morality lessons, is pioneering."... [ Continue reading: ] Castro Ally, Christ Lover Befuddles U.S. Press A Christian Science Monitor story on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as the next big threat to the U.S. "balances" left and right by noting all of Chavez' impressive good works on the one hand and giving ink to scheming toads like Otto Reich, a former undersecretary of state under Bush II who never saw a Latin American dictator he didn't love -- unless it's a pinko like Chavez, or the Father of All Evil (F.O.E.), Castro. The headline editor seems to have followed Reich's lead, identifying Chavez not by name or country but simply as "Castro Ally." [ Continue reading: ] The Way Christ Was A Man Eula Biss: "The concept of Christ is considerably older than the concept of zero. Both are problematic, but the problem of zero troubles me more than the problem of Christ." [ Continue reading: ]  The Valuable Value of Values A fine example of the uncritical approach the mainstream press takes to most religion stories can be found in today's Denver Post, in a report on a Christian academy that's been forced to look for a new home by its... [ Continue reading: ] Destination Christian Nation Sharlet: Spent the morning in an interview with Matthew Wells, a BBC radio reporter who's been working the evangelical politics beat in America for the sake of worried Europeans. Should they be worried? Judging from the clips of Ohio mega-pastor Rod Parsley that Matt played me, yes. [ Continue reading: ]  Put a C-Note on Fred Terry Gross's Fresh Air NPR progam is taking a Crossfire approach to the question of Christian conservative power by inviting onto today's show Dr. James Kennedy, from the right, and Frederick Clarkson, from the left. Of course, they'll be separated,... [ Continue reading: ] Silver Ring Thing Bling The ACLU is suing the Department of Health over its financial support for the Silver Ring Thing, a conservative evangelical teen abstinence program which requires graduates to sign a virginity covenant "before God Almighty." Question: Is there any interpretation of... [ Continue reading: ] Everything but the Longing Peter Bebergal: "I have begun collecting psychedelic music again, almost twenty years after I traded my entire original collection for bag of pot, mostly seeds and stems..." More, on the new/old mysticism of pop and Brooklyn's Akron/Family. [ Continue reading: ] Good God, Best Business Practices "So successful are some evangelicals that they're opening up branches like so many new Home Depots or Subways." Sniping from the secular left or the anti-consumerist right? Nope. Just plain reality from Businessweek, which headlines a special issue on evangelical America with a story on evangelicalism as big biz. [ Continue reading: ]  Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch The first half of "Soldiers of Christ: Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch," a feature by Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet in the May, 2005 issue of Harper's. [ Continue reading: ]  Our Reformation The Revealer is taking a blogging break (back next week), and we won't be Pew-fueled in the future -- but we're not quitting. I didn't mean to imply as much in my post below; apologies to all who've written with concern. We're tinkering with the means, but not the ends. And we'll be doing so with a significantly bigger pool of regular contributors. Stay tuned. [ Continue reading: ] Stay Tuned The Revealer is taking a blogging break (back next week), and we won't be Pew-fueled in the future -- but we're not quitting. I didn't mean to imply as much in my post below; apologies to all who've written with concern. We're tinkering with the means, but not the ends. And we'll be doing so with a significantly bigger pool of regular contributors. Stay tuned. [ Continue reading: ] We're Not Quitting The Revealer is taking a blogging break (back next week), and we won't be Pew-fueled in the future -- but we're not quitting. I didn't mean to imply as much in my post below; apologies to all who've written with... [ Continue reading: ]  Dobson Antichrist Kate Hawley: A Democratic senator’s surprising bout of name-calling [ Continue reading: ]  Our Angry Gods Jonathan Edwards and the Making of America By Jeff Sharlet
Fade to Center Kathryn Joyce: While the religious right broadens its campaign to undermine reproductive freedom, what's left of the left prefers to repeat history. [ Continue reading: ]  Announcements Jeff Sharlet: The Revealer will be taking a short break from blogging for a few weeks, but we'll continue to publish longer features above. With the end of the school year, we're winding down the original grant the Pew Charitable Trusts that gave us life. The Revealer will continue, but in somewhat different form. I'll be thinking about what that'll be and how to do it in the coming weeks. I'll also be writing syllabi -- as of this fall, I'll be teaching two Revealer-related graduate courses for New York University's Center for Religion and Media, through the Department of Journalism and the Religious Studies Program. The future shape of The Revealer will be linked to those courses. Another important change for The Revealer: Kathryn Joyce, who's been managing editor for the last year-and-a-half, is finished with her time at The Revealer. We wish we could keep her, but the grant only extends this far. She has been integral to the growth and identity of The Revealer, and we wish her the best. We also wish her fulfilling work, and we hope Revealer readers may be able to point her in some promising directions. Kathryn earned her masters degree in journalism here at NYU this past winter. And she's proven here on The Revealer that she is a very fine journalist and a thinker. Please contact us if you have suggestions for her, workwise. Here's a collection of some of her best Revealer essays, in addition to "Fade to Center," above: "We See Empire"; "TV News to Believers: Behave!"; "The Last Man on Earth: A Romance"; "Facts, Faith, and 'The Jesus Factor'"; and "Godzilla, Born Again." [ Continue reading: ] Announcements Jeff Sharlet: The Revealer will be taking a short break from blogging for a few weeks, but we'll continue to publish longer features above. With the end of the school year, we're winding down the original grant the Pew Charitable Trusts that gave us life. The Revealer will continue, but in somewhat different form. I'll be thinking about what that'll be and how to do it in the coming weeks. I'll also be writing syllabi -- as of this fall, I'll be teaching two Revealer-related graduate courses for New York University's Center for Religion and Media, through the Department of Journalism and the Religious Studies Program. The future shape of The Revealer will be linked to those courses. Another important change for The Revealer: Kathryn Joyce, who's been managing editor for the last year-and-a-half, is finished with her time at The Revealer. We wish we could keep her, but the grant only extends this far. She has been integral to the growth and identity of The Revealer, and we wish her the best. We also wish her fulfilling work, and we hope Revealer readers may be able to point her in some promising directions. Kathryn earned her masters degree in journalism here at NYU this past winter. And she's proven here on The Revealer that she is a very fine journalist and a thinker. Please contact us if you have suggestions for her, workwise. Here's a collection of some of her best Revealer essays, in addition to "Fade to Center," above: "We See Empire"; "TV News to Believers: Behave!"; "The Last Man on Earth: A Romance"; "Facts, Faith, and 'The Jesus Factor'"; and "Godzilla, Born Again." [ Continue reading: ] Announcements Jeff Sharlet: The Revealer will be taking a short break from blogging for a few weeks, but we'll continue to publish longer features above. With the end of the school year, we're winding down the original grant the Pew Charitable... [ Continue reading: ] Naughty Talk John Tierney throws some red meat to the mythical red states in his (relatively) new NYT column. Today's is titled "Laura Bush Talks Naughty," and man, is it bold -- Tierney fearlessly reports that Republicans tell off-color jokes! Woh! See,... [ Continue reading: ]  Bible Studies Bartholomew reads Agape Press so you don't have to, and returns to the world with news of the weird writ large: The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools has installed its curriculum in around 300 public school districts... [ Continue reading: ] |
