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   Design Schism Jason Carter: Although the irony is difficult to miss, The Los Angeles Times' Josh Getlin dutifully points out that the trial between Dover residents and the city's school board looks oddly like a rerun of Scopes, only this time with... [ Continue reading: ] Partners in Life Cidney Dutton: As reported by the Associated Press, nearly 200 Justices of the Peace of Connecticut gathered for a crash course on "civil unions," which will become legal in the state on October 1st. At the conference, attendees were advised... [ Continue reading: ]  The Geena Factor Marissa Kantor and Rebecca Beyer: "Hair, Hemlines and History," and "Holy War Lite": Two responses to Commander in Chief. [ Continue reading: ] We Are the Others Hally Hall-I Chu: In the most recent issue of The Journal of Religion and Society, social scientist Gregory Paul published a study on the correlation between religiosity and societal problems in developed countries of the world. Such studies are not uncommon, but Paul’s paper, "Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look," caught the media’s attention. Shortly after the study was published, The Times Online reported the news with a provocatively- headlined article, "Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side.'" Factual contents aside, it is a study imbued with gross generalizations and questionable premises that mark a step backward for social science. [ Continue reading: ] GOD TV "'It is God’s sovereign time for the East Coast of America. He has planned such a radical move of The Holy Spirit from here, it will impact the Americas and the world, and in less than a decade, the East... [ Continue reading: ]  What We Talk About When We Talk About Ghosts Margaretta Soehendro and Sarah Karnasiewicz: "Closure, Trite and True," and "Goodbye God, Hello Ghost Stories": Two takes on CBS's new "spiritual" drama, Ghost Whisperer. [ Continue reading: ] Light for the Dark City? Elizabeth Rich: "This is indeed a dark city and we’re bringing the light. You know wherever soldiers go, there goes the word of God." Discussion of the National Guard’s clean-up and marshalling of law in New Orleans has included stories both uplifting and maddening: their late arrival on the scene, but also their subsequent heroics; their rooftop-rescues of stranded young children, as well as their attempts to intimidate the press and local officials on the ground. Last weekend, as the country awaited the arrival of Hurricane Rita and the possibility of deluged New Orleans besieged yet again, images from the Gulf Coast -- gridlocked traffic jams, the hunt for gas and failed evacuation attempts -- splashed across the screen. And a story from the San Francisco CBS affiliate about the National Guard in New Orleans surfaced on The Drudge Report... [ Continue reading: ] The Faces of Dover Raegan Johnson: The debate over the teaching of Intelligent Design and evolution is not a scientific one; it's political. In fact, it's less a debate than yet another tool in the movement to degrade the separation of church and state. Laura Goodstein’s article, "A Web of Faith, Law and Science in Evolution Suit," in The New York Times, concerns the current court debate in Dover, Pennsylvania, where parents who don't want Intelligent Design taught in their children's schools are suing the district. [ Continue reading: ]  Experimental Religion, Pt. 1 Joe Tuzzo: In the records department beneath the New York Criminal Courthouse, Carmen Julia Porfido had a vision of forgiveness. There in the women’s restroom, in the exposed grout beneath a cracked floor tile, the Spanish interpreter saw something, a chance image that triggered inspiration... [ Continue reading: ]  Crossing Over With Amy Grant Nicole Greenfield: There’s always a lot of hype surrounding a new TV series, even when it’s just another indistinguishable reality show. The most recent buzz, good, bad, and astonishingly bad, has been about last Friday night’s NBC premiere of “Three Wishes,” hosted by Christian singer Amy Grant... [ Continue reading: ] How The New Yorker Makes Rick Warren Safe for Secular Consumption J.J. Helland: Too often, the media views the subject of religion in America as a strictly sociological study. Faith is to be interpreted on economic, political and cultural terms -- anything other than as a significant set of religious beliefs that informs people’s lives. The most recent example of this approach is found in the September 12th issue of The New Yorker. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, a bestselling work of pop sociology on how people follow trends, profiles the evangelical pastor Rick Warren, founder of the hugely successful Saddleback megachurch and author The Purpose-Driven Life,a bestselling work of pop theology on why people should follow one particular trend. [ Continue reading: ]  What's So Secret About Islam? Vanessa Larson: In August, U.S. News and World Report put out a “Collector’s Edition” called "Secrets of Islam." Why the need for the Orientalist-sounding word “secrets”? Does Islam really contain more secrets than, say, Christianity? [ Continue reading: ]  Xian Ed 101: How to Eat Spotted Owl When asked how they heard about Summit [Christian defense workshops for college students], several students can't remember. 'Everyone knows about Summit,' one of them says." Everyone. But if that doesn't include you... [ Continue reading: ]  Narrative Gerrymandering Tony Perkins of the Christian conservative Family Research Council targets NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- usually of little concern to the Christian Right -- for his opposition to John Roberts' confirmation. But Perkins has bigger game in his sites --... [ Continue reading: ] Katrina Coverage Brown-Out Marissa Kantor: In the aftermath of Katrina, white "finds"; black "loots"; and brown hides beneath church pews. Too bad the press isn't looking... [ Continue reading: ] Other New Orleans New Orleans may be a city "where old-time religion and voodoo converge," as the NYT's Michael Brick puts it, but so far the Katrina coverage -- heavy on prayers and spiritual healing -- has been weighted to the first side... [ Continue reading: ] Boston Globe Draws Battle Lines Over Blurry Terrain Sarah Price Brown observes: When Michael Paulson wrote in The Boston Globe a few days ago about a Vatican investigation into homosexuality in seminaries, he framed the issue plainly. The effort, he claimed “is alarming gay rights advocates but is... [ Continue reading: ] The Exorcism of Reese Witherspoon Brad Tytel on the religion of movie reviewers and the underlying faith of Just Like Heaven. [ Continue reading: ]   Play It Again, Sam Christian Right reactions to the latest Pledge of Allegiance news... [ Continue reading: ] No Dating, No Context Zain Shauk writes: In describing a Muslim father’s concerns about his daughters' virtue, Robert King of the Indianapolis Star writes, “the Abdur-Rahmans have not hesitated to apply some of the more restrictive aspects of Muslim life to their kids: No... [ Continue reading: ] Mormon "Cinema" Erica Ogg: Sean P. Means dutifully lines up to do a Christians-in-Hollywood piece for the Salt Lake Tribune, appropriately about “Mormon Cinema” (which evidently requires capitalization -- who knew?) Means shows us that Mormons like to make movies, that they can find financing and that they’re trying to go mainstream, i.e., reach audiences outside Utah. An annoying trend, said one director interviewed, is calling movies Mormon just because they have Mormon directors. So, why does Means open and close his piece with cute references to Napoleon Dynamite? Ostensibly, it is because lead actor John Heder and director Jared Hess attended Brigham Young U. Was Means listening when he conducted the interview? [ Continue reading: ] Onward, Penguin Soldiers Sharlet: On the one hand, there's something thuggish about attempts by some religious conservative media bigs to press penguins into service for the cause, as reported by Jonathan Miller in yesterday's Times. There is, after all, nothing conservative about the... [ Continue reading: ]  Teaching a Disaster The Revealer has very rarely received as much mail as we did in response to Anthea Butler's response to Katrina, "As Sheep Without a Shepherd." Some it angry about Anthea's anger -- "unAmerican," writes Ann Meili -- but most of... [ Continue reading: ]  Heavens Above! (Politics Below) Nick Street asks why Christian conservative media is so literally down to earth. [ Continue reading: ] His Dark Widow's Peak Moktada al-Sadr's "beard reaches up his cheeks and a dark widow's peak points down from beneath his own black turban. He glowers, projecting mistrust, even when he briefly smiles." That's an interesting description, appropriately wicked and uncommonly revealing for an... [ Continue reading: ] Holy Hurting The religious art of a junkie named Mike, as seen by photographer Jessica Dimmock. Theologian Ariel Glucklich on sacred pain.... [ Continue reading: ]  This Should Have Been News A leader of the nation's largest evangelical organization sharply chastises Bush for his failure to act in a crisis situation. The dreaded g-word -- genocide -- is deployed. And the press says... no big deal. This isn't New Orleans, of course, but a tragedy even more awful... [ Continue reading: ]  Media Crit, The Next Generation A letter to the editor of The Revealer: "i'm 13 in 8th grade and your article gives no information at all! i need information on a paper i have to do and you have been no help at all! -- kecia pratt,13, sandy creek new york" [ Continue reading: ]  Journalism Faces Faith Jeff Sharlet Magazine Writing: Journalism Faces Faith Abbreviated In an era of culture war, holy war, and technological revolution, religion, in the true, broad sense, permeates at least half the stories in the news. Iraq, Iran, Israel -- we know... [ Continue reading: ] Mormons Drink Christian Baby Blood, Don't They? Amy Sullivan of Washington Monthly on why The Atlantic, the Weekly Standard, and the National Review are wrong about Mitt Romney, the conservative Massachusetts governor who wants to be America's first Mormon president: "The first time I ever heard about... [ Continue reading: ] Our New Deal The Revealer has been born again. In the administrative sense, that is. Starting this fall -- now -- The Revealer will be draw upon a staff of a few dozen graduate journalism students from New York University's Department of Journalism, and from the University of Southern California. We're on a mission: in search of new forms for journalism about religion, broadly defined... [ Continue reading: ] Cracking ‘The Code’s’ Controversy? Nellie Day: Kentucky’s Messenger-Inquirer, like many other American papers, tries to present an unbiased look at the soon-to-be film version of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Instead, Karen Owen spends 25 paragraphs back-and-forthing on the strangely past-tense headline: “‘Da Vinci Code,’ Upcoming Film Upset Catholics.” What's remarkable are the reasons Owen’s sources give for taking such passionate stances on the book, and the as-yet-to-be-seen film... [ Continue reading: ] Rock n' Roy (Moore, Moore, Moore!) "Like a lot of celebrities, the Rock is smaller than you expect it to be..." No, not the awesome wrestling star of Walking Tall and this summer's Will Rogers Institute pre-movie guilt trips. The Rock, dude, as in Judge Roy... [ Continue reading: ] Church-Instead-Of-State The Family Research Council -- heir to the Christian Coalition as Washington's most effective Christian Right political organization -- doesn't often stray far from the Republican line. But its sacrificing political loyalty in the aftermath of Katrina to score points... [ Continue reading: ]  Greening Christianity, Whitewashing the News Cortney Fielding: Buzzing its way through the British media is the recent announcement that three Christian faith-based organizations have joined together with 14 “traditional” environmentalist groups in order to guilt Downing Street... [ Continue reading: ]  Loot This Billy Sothern: "I hope that in the event that my house is still standing and above water, someone has the good sense to loot it; there are 20 gallons of bottled water in the kitchen, some food in the cupboard... [ Continue reading: ]  "The Rest of the Goddamn Nation" Those aren't the words of a starving prisoner of the New Orleans Superdome, radicalized by the realization that he or she may well die for lack of a school bus. They're the words of Col. Terry Ebert, director of Homeland Security for New Orleans. FEMA's response -- or lack thereof -- he told The New York Times, has been "criminal." Also notably lacking in the response to this disaster are suggestions that Katrina is a punishment sent by God. When the tsunami struck Asia, such notions came from across the spectrum, but most pungently from Christian conservatives who noted that Aceh, an "exporter of radical Islam," as National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard put it, had been hardest hit. Such neanderthal theology apparently does not apply to the U.S. Rather, the God invoked most often now is the distant, inscrutable deity responsible for other no-fault acts such as earthquakes and tornadoes. The "acts" of this God are not willful so much as "natural" -- hence the rise of the term "natural disaster" in the late 19th century. "The concept of an act of God implied that something was wrong," writes scholar Ted Steinberg in an important book called Acts of God: An Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America, "that people had sinned and must now pay for their errors. But the idea of natural disaster may have implicitly suggested the reverse, that something was right, that the prevailing system of social and economic relations was functioning just fine." Indeed. The cavalry -- or, in this case, the shock troops -- are on their way to protect those economic relations. Three hundred troops directly from Iraq have landed in the city, and "they have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded," blusters Louisiana Governor Blanco. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will." In addition to bullets, the rescuers are bringing Bibles. Crates of them reportedly await refugees in Houston, and FEMA has listed Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" as a suitable destination for donations. But if this is a religion story, it's not about an act of God or the banal use and abuse of the Bible as substitute aid for people dying of literal thirst; it's about sin. And no vague, blustery "pride of man" stories about ill-preparedness or mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers will address the original sin of this event. We need theologically-charged, morally outraged, investigative historical reporting to tell us why and how the dead of New Orleans died, and when their killers -- not Katrina, but the developers and politicians and patricians who are now far from the city -- began the killing. It wasn't Monday, and it wasn't last week. We need journalists, not just historians, to look deeper into the American mythologies of race and money, "personal responsibility" and real responsibility. This isn't a religion story because God acted, but because people acted. It's not about what they didn't do, it's about what they did do, under the cover of civic development and urban renewal and faith-based initiatives that systematically eradicate the possibility of real, systemic response to a crisis that is more than a matter of individual souls. The root of the word "religion," "religare," tells us what kind of religion story can be reported from the Superdome. Religare means "ties that bind." Those should be bonds of community. But in New Orleans -- and in every other poverty-stricken city in America -- they're chains. --Jeff Sharlet [ Continue reading: ] As Sheep Without A Shepherd Anthea Butler: The port that took in the bodies and souls of Africans to enslave them in America is the same place in which their descendents are dying because of the neglect -- and virtual genocide -- foisted upon them by a lame duck and lame president and an ineffectual government. That's right, America. Slavery has never ended for generations of African Americans in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama... [ Continue reading: ] "The Rest of the Goddamn Nation" Those aren't the words of a starving prisoner of the New Orleans Superdome, radicalized by the realization that he or she may well die for lack of a school bus. They're the words of Col. Terry Ebert, director of Homeland Security for New Orleans. FEMA's response -- or lack thereof -- he told The New York Times, has been "criminal." Also notably lacking in the response to this disaster are suggestions that Katrina is a punishment sent by God. When the tsunami struck Asia, such notions came from across the spectrum, but most pungently from Christian conservatives who noted that Aceh, an "exporter of radical Islam," as National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard put it, had been hardest hit. Such neanderthal theology apparently does not apply to the U.S. Rather, the God invoked most often now is the distant, inscrutable deity responsible for other no-fault acts such as earthquakes and tornadoes. The "acts" of this God are not willful so much as "natural" -- hence the rise of the term "natural disaster" in the late 19th century. "The concept of an act of God implied that something was wrong," writes scholar Ted Steinberg in an important book called Acts of God: An Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America, "that people had sinned and must now pay for their errors. But the idea of natural disaster may have implicitly suggested the reverse, that something was right, that the prevailing system of social and economic relations was functioning just fine." Indeed. The cavalry -- or, in this case, the shock troops -- are on their way to protect those economic relations. Three hundred troops directly from Iraq have landed in the city, and "they have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded," blusters Louisiana Governor Blanco. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will." In addition to bullets, the rescuers are bringing Bibles. Crates of them reportedly await refugees in Houston, and FEMA has listed Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" as a suitable destination for donations. But if this is a religion story, it's not about an act of God or the banal use and abuse of the Bible as substitute aid for people dying of literal thirst; it's about sin. And no vague, blustery "pride of man" stories about ill-preparedness or mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers will address the original sin of this event. We need theologically-charged, morally outraged, investigative historical reporting to tell us why and how the dead of New Orleans died, and when their killers -- not Katrina, but the developers and politicians and patricians who are now far from the city -- began the killing. It wasn't Monday, and it wasn't last week. We need journalists, not just historians, to look deeper into the American mythologies of race and money, "personal responsibility" and real responsibility. This isn't a religion story because God acted, but because people acted. It's not about what they didn't do, it's about what they did do, under the cover of civic development and urban renewal and faith-based initiatives that systematically eradicate the possibility of real, systemic response to a crisis that is more than a matter of individual souls. The root of the word "religion," "religare," tells us what kind of religion story can be reported from the Superdome. Religare means "ties that bind." Those should be bonds of community. But in New Orleans -- and in every other poverty-stricken city in America -- they're chains. --Jeff Sharlet [ Continue reading: ]  Glick and Snip Hey fellas -- been circumcised lately? If so, Slate's Emily Bazelon wants you, for a survey on "optimal pleasure." (Was sex better before, or after?) What's the occasion? The publication of Marked In Your Flesh: Circumcision From Ancient Judea To... [ Continue reading: ] |