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   The Last Revival Michael Rose: Shepherds to a "new global religious vanguard," or members of a dying breed? The Washington Post gets revived. [ Continue reading: ] What's In a Name? Sarah Price Brown: Health activists and "social conservatives" are fighting over the new cervical cancer vaccine, writes Rob Stein in The Washington Post. Stein presents both sides of the conflict while managing to leave out one relevant piece in the... [ Continue reading: ] Birthdays, Etc. Happy Birthday Jesus? Not to mention, Happy Wicca New Year and a Happy Bonded Dead Souls Temporarily Revived In the Shape of an Animal Day to you!... [ Continue reading: ]  The Washington Times Runs Red The Washington Times declares holy war on Islam. [ Continue reading: ] NYT Chuckles at Fundies, and Does Their Work For Them Jeff Sharlet: Are U.S. military chaplains promoting homophobia and discrimination against non-Christian women on taxpayer time? [ Continue reading: ] World at War, Pt. 2 Desecrated kitsch: Michael de la Merced on how the secular press ignored all that makes the latest Left Behind flick, ah, special. [ Continue reading: ] World at War, Pt. 1 The press reacts to the latest Left Behind movie. Erica Ogg looks at what gets left out of the coverage. [ Continue reading: ]  Cast the First Vote A Christian think tank in Bangor, Maine is mobilizing to oppose a November ballot question that could reverse the state's new gay non-discrimination law, which protects gays' rights to equal opportunity in employment, housing, education and public accomodations, with the... [ Continue reading: ] Upstate Enlightenment Amherst, New York, home of Free Inquiry, the skeptics' periodical of choice, and its parent organization, the Council for Secular Humanism, this weekend hosts its 10th Annual World Congress, "Toward a New Enlightenment," as a response to religious encroachments on... [ Continue reading: ]  Eagles for Christ A Delaware state principal has apologized after allowing a Christian-themed assembly, featuring two pro-football players from the Philadelphia Eagles -- one of whom is the founder of the evangelical group, Athletes United for Christ -- to occur at a public... [ Continue reading: ] People At War Rebecca Beyer: It's easy to reduce (or inflate) this latest manifestation of the struggle between a secular worldview and a religious one to the terms that clutter stories about sports and, well, war. We are, after all, a country at war -- a real one, in which the 2000th United States soldier (and an uncalculated or unknown number of Iraqi civilians) recently died. We're also in a War on drugs; a War on Terror; a Holy War, not least. War is everywhere we look, even when it isn't, because stories that only have two characters are refreshingly simple. [ Continue reading: ] Air Force Prayer A letter to President Bush, signed by 70 lawmakers, has requested a presidential order guaranteeing the free speech of military chaplains in the face of new sensitivity guidelines proposed after this year's evangelizing Air Force controversy. The letter, dated October... [ Continue reading: ] Rice Hosts Assorted Epithets A somewhat baffling news story, about Condeleeza Rice's recent hosting of Muslim community leaders for a fast-breaking Iftaar dinner at the State Department building, appears on the website of the Kuwait News Agency -- an entity which might be expected... [ Continue reading: ]  Lite-Nite 'Tis the season for embarrassing hysterics over occultism and the cruel, intimidating tactics of devil-worshipping trick-or-treaters. In the spirit of that season, the Church of England's Bishop of Bolton, the Right Rev. David Gillett, proposes rescuing Halloween from its own... [ Continue reading: ] Argentina Re-Jewvenation Daniel Helft of Bloomberg News reports on the progress of Argentine Jews who, 60 to 70 years after a secret 1938 order banning Jewish immigrants from entering the country forced many Jews to conceal their religion (and to "pass" by... [ Continue reading: ] Wrath, Etc. Generally speaking, U.S. politicians' and religio-rock stars' explanations for God's periodic, environmental fits of wrath are predictable: gay sex, casual sex, unwed sex, unusual sex, and oh, occasionally a political misstep. Turns out such divining is just as tedious in... [ Continue reading: ]  Atheist Lobbyist Atheists get a lobbyist too, in the form of Lori Lipman Brown, former Nevada state senator and the new congressional lobbyist and spokeswoman for The Secular Coalition for America who will be in charge of educating the public on misconceptions... [ Continue reading: ] Black Metal Malaysia A parlimentarian in Kuala Lampur today asked the government to investigate "Black Metal," a so-called "anti-religion cult" practiced by some Malay Muslim teenagers -- "confessed 'satan's children,'" in the words of the parlimentarian, who burn and step on the Qur'an... [ Continue reading: ] Steele Hates Westboro Republican Indiana State Senator Brent Steele said he intends to propose legislation in response to the antics of the Westboro Baptist "God Hates Fags" traveling prayer protesters, making disorderly conduct at the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers a felony offense.... [ Continue reading: ]  Gods of San Francisco "Like pouring dirty water on the Vatican." The New York Times' Randal C. Archibold reports on the lawsuit brought by 13 Native American tribes in the Flagstaff, Arizona area, over the proposal of a ski resort located on the San... [ Continue reading: ] Special Rapport An independent expert has issued a new report to the United Nations, urging the assembly to protect the religious freedom of all prisoners, drawing particular attention to the "growing number" of allegations of religious abuse of detainees and prisoners. The... [ Continue reading: ] The Day After the Episcopal Bomb Leaked minutes from a meeting of liberal Episcopalian para-church laity have found their into the hands of The Washington Times' Julia Duin, who dutifully characterizes the notes as a deliberate plot to "oust" and "disenfranchise" conservative Episcopal bishops who have... [ Continue reading: ] No Compromise Intelligent Design earns another foe, this time from a less-obvious place. Fr. George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory and astronomical research and educational division of the Church, has dismissed Intelligent Design for dismissing God -- for trying so hard... [ Continue reading: ]  God Women Yogmata Japaki, A Buddhist Japanese god woman has buried herself alive in an underground pit to achieve "Samadhi," or state of complete meditation, in a prayer for world peace and the restoration of natural order in the face of immense... [ Continue reading: ] Arbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu, the new Archbishop of York, the second-highest official in the Church of England, and the Church's first black Archbishop, announced his receipt of racist threat letters, some smeared with feces, after his election earlier this year.... [ Continue reading: ]  J-Post, Christian Edition Chris McGreal of The Guardian reports on the plans of Israeli's oldest English-language paper, The Jerusalem Post, to launch a new Christian edition, assembled in connection with the International Christian Embassy (which is campaigning agains Israeli divestment plans being discussed... [ Continue reading: ] Conservatism, Born Again Can conservatism -- or at least Bush's variety of it -- be born again? Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and former Bush, Sr. speech writer, counsels the president to model his "mid-presidency crisis" after his earlier mid-life dilemna, and... [ Continue reading: ] Radically Other "Who is this 'God' in whose name so many diverse and troubling things take place? Why is it assumed to be good to affirm one's faith in such an entity? Why is it thought to be wicked to deny its... [ Continue reading: ] Separation of Church and War Jason Carter: Objecting voices were raised in China, both Koreas and even Japan when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited a Shinto shrine honoring Ally-convicted war criminals. While China fears Koizumi’s homage to an imperial past will strain diplomacy over... [ Continue reading: ]  Bork You "There is a great deal more to constitutional law than hostility to Roe." Zing! Says who? Robert Bork, the guy who didn't get the job Harriet Miers is about to not get, back during that other right-wing revolution. All bitterness... [ Continue reading: ]  Deep Space Salvation Catchy headlines, catchier content: Ruth Gledhill reports that The Catholic Truth Society's new Explanations series contains the work of a papal astonomer who asserts that extra-terrestrial life, if found, will have already found Christ. Or at least, presumably, have been... [ Continue reading: ] Rabbi for Krakow Yesterday, Rabbi Avraham Flaks became the first full-time rabbi to serve Krakow since the Holocaust, taking with his position a mission to revive Jewish life and help community members rediscover their heritage in the city where Jewish culture was almost... [ Continue reading: ] Media-Assisted Suicide Marissa Kantor: This is not a piece about Harriet Miers’ evangelical beliefs. This is not a piece about physician-assisted suicide. This is not a piece about federalism and states’ rights. This is a piece about how the media -- both the left and the right -- is plagued with inaccurate reporting about Gonzales v. Oregon, muddled with here-and-there references to Harriet Miers, because they are asking the wrong questions. This is, in the end, a piece about death and our societal inability to face it. [ Continue reading: ] Miers Saved from Idol-Worshipping Cult Harriet Miers either "found Christ" in 1989, or else she lost her faith in that same year, and she is either definitely going to hell, or she isn't, depending on where you're coming from. Maybe not the sort of thing... [ Continue reading: ] Prop 2 Cidney Dutton: On Nov. 8, Texans will be voting on Proposition 2, a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Two editorials in a local paper, the Waco Tribune, give distinct justifications for the superfluity of this referendum. An October 17... [ Continue reading: ] Aryan Jihad and the Elephant in America's Living Room Meera Subramanian: Here’s a riddle for you: How can a small neo-Nazi march, organized to draw attention to the alleged persecution of white people by black people, and a counter-demonstration of approximately 600 blacks, take place in Ohio and not spur a single news report to directly address the question of race, except to deny its role in the events? [ Continue reading: ]  Playing for Him Nicole Greenfield: Baseball is a religious sport, there's no doubt about it. During the course of a game, we see players mutter prayers before stepping into the batter’s box, point up to God after hitting one out of the park, or cross themselves after sliding safely into second. But for the Christian media, religiosity on the field is a major issue, if not the only one. [ Continue reading: ] Chant Wars: Make It Roman Good news for a capella crusaders. Benjamin Bagby talks to Leonard Lopate of WNYC about the seamy backstory of Gregorian Chant: more to do with Charlemagne than Pope Gregory -- who, according to legend, was supposed to have received the... [ Continue reading: ] The H-Word Interfaith offense was given this week in Virginia's gubernatorial race, after Republican nominee, Jerry W. Kilgore, launched a new ad-campaign attacking Democrat candidate Timothy M. Kaine's opposition to the death penalty as a position that would let "even Hitler" off... [ Continue reading: ] Overturning Roe What did James Dobson know about Harriet Miers, and when did he know it? John Fund of the Wall Street Journal answers those questions with notes obtained from an Oct. 3 conference call involving 13 religious right leaders and two... [ Continue reading: ] The Final Battle In a "news analysis" article, The NYT's David E. Sanger offers up some media crit of a master narrative in the offing... [ Continue reading: ]  Oh My GodBlogCon Marissa Kantor: At the first God Blog Convention, which kicked off yesterday and runs through October 15, Christian God-bloggers have come together at Biola University to discuss how to spread the Word through the holy blogosphere. The registrants, to be... [ Continue reading: ] Bush Said God Said Al Kamen, Washington Post columnist, runs through the history of Bush's near-misses with claims of divine guidance, from his Amish Country slip that "God speaks through [him]," to the more recent, and varied, accounts of what Bush said God said... [ Continue reading: ] Jump Up Newt Gingrich is back, saying some vague stuff about religion being the cornerstone of America's identity and the key to reigning victorious over Islamic terrorists, all in preparation for...a presidential campaign. There's hope though -- it's even Gingrich's own professed... [ Continue reading: ]  Christian Crusader Tony Perkins Bites Own Ass The Christian Coalition may unraveling at the seams (see below), but at least it was all for a bad cause (self-enrichment, bullyboy politics, career-launching, aka "Ralph Reed"). Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, one of the ascendant powers of... [ Continue reading: ] Burkha Ban An anti-immigrant minister in the Netherlands has proposed a ban on the burkha in certain public places and transportation facilities, citing safety concerns. Muslim groups have objected to the move as an "irritant," arguing that very few women wear the... [ Continue reading: ] Last Supper Swap Meet The Vatican has proposed a swap with the Israeli government, trading an historic synagogue in Spain (which is currently a Catholic church) for control of the Upper Room in Jerusalem -- the room where the Last Supper is said to... [ Continue reading: ] Coalition Demolition Sad times are here for the once king-making Christian Coalition. As The Washington Times' Julia Duin chronicles the dwindling attendance at Coalition "Road to Victory" rallies, as well as the group's looming financial problems, which have left a "trail of... [ Continue reading: ] No Tribes for You Somewhere amid their moving crates in Venezuela's Apure state, a group of Florida "New Tribesmen" are saying, "Thanks a lot, Pat." Yesterday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced to a group of Venezuelan indigenous people that he was ashamed of the... [ Continue reading: ] Vows Revealer contributor Peter Manseau will read from his new book, Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son on these dates, including Monday, October 17 at the new McNally-Robinson Bookstore in Manhattan, where a whole class of Revealer contributors will be in the audience. Peter is author of the Revealer essays "The Day After 'Morning in America'" and "American Aquarium Drinker." [ Continue reading: ] Vows Revealer contributor and Buddha killer Peter Manseau makes his national TV debut this morning at 8:18 eastern time on "Today," talking with Matt Lauer about his new book, Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son. Read... [ Continue reading: ]  Pitbull Press Sharlet: 10 minutes after I write a Revealer item wondering why the press failed to notice the white supremacist, Christian conspiracy link on the site of Harriet Miers' church (it's not what you think), liberal site Daily Kos brings news... [ Continue reading: ] This Is Not What It Seems Sharlet: I've a short item on Harriet Miers' church, Valley View Christian, coming out in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. Poking around the site, I came across a startling link, to the Gospel Broadcasting Association, which declares: "This ministry is directed to the peoples of the world which historically have embraced Christianity--namely, the Caucasians... [ Continue reading: ] New Virgins Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet responds to Jeremy Lott about the importance of chastity to the Christian conservative movement, on Beliefnet.... [ Continue reading: ] Not a Cheap Commodity Bush tries to save his Miers project from implosion by 'fessing up that his advisors had promoted the nominee to conservative groups by discussing her religious beliefs and background, but it may be too little frankness, too late. Last Friday,... [ Continue reading: ]  Praising God, Worshipping Mammon Nick Street: On the front page of the Science section of The New York Times last week, Dennis Overbye posted an update on recent views of the Virgo Cluster -- a spectacular and chaotic tangle of thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars, and a gravity strong enough to influence the expansion of the universe in our own neighborhood. You might say that Presbyterian billionaire John Templeton is having a similar effect on coverage of the science and religion debates. [ Continue reading: ] On HPV Message Sarah Price Brown: When The Los Angeles Times reported Friday on a breakthrough vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, the newspaper raised a cause for concern. "Vaccinating children against a sexually transmitted disease could inadvertently be perceived as endorsing promiscuity," Thomas... [ Continue reading: ] Attempting to Dissuade Believers Kaitlyn Burch: Time columnist Leon Jaroff predicts the end of homeopathic medicine, after reading a study from British medical journal The Lancet, proving the inefficacy of homeopathic medicine. Though Jaroff begins his piece by repeating the Royal Family's endorsement of... [ Continue reading: ]  In Rocky's Shoes S. Brent Plate: At the top of the great steps of Philadelphia's stately Museum of Art, one can find the footprints of Rocky. Tourists from all over the world make pilgrimages here to climb the enormous stairway leading to the museum and the footprints, a little hunk of bronze and cement, imprints of Rocky's Converse high tops. Jumping up and down with arms raised, these tourist-pilgrims have their picture taken, then go home and put that image in their scrapbooks and on their web pages to say, "Look, I stood where Rocky stood!" [ Continue reading: ] Key Dobson The Boston Globe launches a three-part series on "key evangelical leaders" with a solid report on James Dobson of Focus on the Family. "Other key figures," writes Brian MacQuarrie, "range from Richard Land, the politically connected Washington lobbyist of the... [ Continue reading: ]  The Chronicle of Higher Education, Radical Feminazi Stealth Rag Christian Right leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council takes a swipe at my former Chronicle of Higher Education colleague Peter Schmidt in the latest edition of his email newsletter. Peter's sin? Reporting that Harriet Miers helped establish a... [ Continue reading: ] Ideas in Effigy If evolutionism is a religion, does this become hate speech? Two Dover, PA, school board members praised the burning of a former student's mural depicting of the evolution of man.... [ Continue reading: ] Pulp Religion A reassigned Catholic priest on a crusade of sexual moralizing, who was found to have child pornography on his computer when police searched his home on the day before he hung himself; an exhuberant, ultra-conservative preacher who embarrassed half of... [ Continue reading: ] Bad Magic and the Secularist of the Year Ah, the secular backlash against the rising tide of extremist religion -- numbered, as always, in the "scores." The petite force will meet this week in London, rallying its dozens with a new "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony, the... [ Continue reading: ] Miers Post From Christianity Today Weblog, an exhaustive compilation of links regarding the religious and personal beliefs of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers -- from Opus Dei to abortion to euthanasia to Mormonism -- as well as the reactions of the professionally... [ Continue reading: ] Supernatural George "'If Bush really wants to obey God during his time as president he should start with what is blindingly obvious from the Bible rather than perceived supernatural messages.'" British reserve, specifically the Christian Socialist version of this reserve, responds to... [ Continue reading: ]  Air Force Suit Mikey Weinstein, the Jewish father of two Air Force Academy cadets and an academy graduate himself, today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force and its acting secretary over the charges of religious intolerance that have surrounded the school... [ Continue reading: ] Young Women In Love Zain Shauk: Are teenage girls who have sex 12 times more likely to kill themselves, and do CAT scans of their brains, when they're in love, really resemble those of drug users, brimming with addictive stimulation? Maybe, maybe not. But... [ Continue reading: ] Touring 1984 Todd Smilovitz: It’s nice that North Korea is allowing a Buddhist temple to be restored, but Los Angeles Times reporter Barbara Demick plays right into Kim Jong Il’s hands in her story on it. As pointed out in Rogue Regime,... [ Continue reading: ]  Heart-Shaped Box Franklin Graham steps lively on CNN, refusing to blame New Orleans's Mardi Gras hedonism for Katrina, and instead merely offering the destruction of the city as a prime opportunity for revival and redemption in a city of sin. More interesting... [ Continue reading: ] Intelligent Design, World Religion Style Brad Tytel: Intelligent Design is big news right now, and the media has made much of this latest broadside in the raging culture war between "the scientists" and "the Christians." So it’s a pleasure to read coverage that attempts to bring other spiritual perspectives to the table, such as last week's New York Times article, by George Johnson, concerning the evolutionary opinions of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, and the Pope. But what's good in theory isn't always in practice, and Johnson's article is hardly a cause for celebration. [ Continue reading: ] Bloody Redemption J.J. Helland: Reviewers of David Cronenberg’s new film, A History of Violence have made much of the movie’s bloodshed as an adroit social commentary on America’s complicated obsession with violence and its linkage to sexual energy. But they've overlooked the thorny spiritual quest of the film’s protagonists. [ Continue reading: ] Undercover at the Movies Erica Ogg: In Jason Anderson’s "Undercover of the right...and left" in the Canadian magazine Eye Weekly, he warns of the "cagey tactics" studios employ to promote films with ideological agendas that "are getting harder to spot." Anderson, a professed "part-time... [ Continue reading: ]  Telling the "Good News" Michael Rose: The slogan for Luis Palau's upcoming evangelical festival, "Great Music! Good News!", is about as religious as the message gets. [ Continue reading: ] Photography and the Occult Kate Hawley: Journalism about the occult usually files under "news of the weird." But the opening of a new exhibition of photographs at the Metropolitan Museum last week has faced the press with an unusual task: to grapple with the paranormal as a spiritual and cultural practice. [ Continue reading: ] |
