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   Holy Ghost People Ashley Michelle Makar: "When Aunt Judy almost died last week, I was watching people speak in tongues, in Peter Adair's 1967 documentary Holy Ghost People. Aunt Judy was being resuscitated in a north Alabama emergency room, her blood sugar sky high, while I was getting exhilarated, in a New York screening room, high on cinematic testimonies, the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. I was watching at first in awe -- the convulsive jerk of an Appalachian woman's head before she broke into tongues; a younger woman talking about the Lord dealing with her through a tingling in her stomach. As I listened to those Holy Ghost people getting worked up, or the Lord working on them, as they put it, something like revelation came up on me: My people are Holy Ghost people. Their strange Word is my Grandmother tongue. It's in my blood. Like cancer..." More on our sister site, Killing the Buddha. [ Continue reading: ] Hot Nude Celeb Pro-Life Action Nude Britney Spears in hot pro-life action! Artist Daniel Edwards sculpts Brit birthing baby Sean Preston -- on a bearskin rug! Live sculpture in Williamsburg! Steamy pro-life lit lying about, courtesy of Manhattan Right to Life! Is it satire?!? Bad art, "enacting a most effective form of appropriation, one that actually invites the participation of the very discourse that it is parodying"?!? Pro-life XXX?!? All three -- at the same time?!? Find out! (HT Danielle Friedland's brilliant Celebrity Baby Blog) [ Continue reading: ] Off the Island Tanya Erzen dissects Focus on the Family's nationally organized "grass roots" effort to make gay civil rights a matter for a yea or nay vote in the name of democracy -- you know, the kind where you get to vote... [ Continue reading: ]  America and Her Superfriend Tony Judt, author of a useful new book on European politics since 1945 called Postwar, demolishes the so-called dean of Cold War studies, John Lewis Gaddis, and his new book, The Cold War: A New History. Gaddis, Judt notes, ignores... [ Continue reading: ] Professor Evil Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed debunks David Horowitz' new book on the evils of academe, The Professors, and proves Pat Robertson is a fool -- a task that's the journalistic equivalent of passing Rocks for Jocks. But somebody had... [ Continue reading: ]
McPassion Swarzwelder
God’s Lovin’ It Nicole Greenfield wonders why more Christians don't feel The McPassion. [ Continue reading: ]  Nazis Ahead That the Jewish Forward pays more attention to what may be a neo-Nazi resurgence in Germany comes as no surprise. Mainstream media likes Nazi stories, too, but only as a sort of darker version of the perennial "Church of Elvis"... [ Continue reading: ] Clash of Civilizations Cliffs Notes (Bay Ridge Edition) Nora Connor: At first, Andrea Elliott’s New York Times series “An Imam in America” seems to offer an opportunity, rare in newsprint, to witness a religion being practiced rather than hearing it explained... [ Continue reading: ]  They All Look the Same, Don't They? WaPo's military correspondent Tom Ricks, according to George Will: "who, he wonders, will control the likes of Moqtada al-Sadr? Imagine, Ricks says, another cleric, the Rev. Al Sharpton, controlling the Bronx with a militia he can call into the streets... [ Continue reading: ] Megachurch Nation, Colorado to Kiev The best journalism on evangelicals in awhile comes not from a writer but from a French photographer named Johann Rousselot. Check out these photographs of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and then go to Rousselot's main page to find... [ Continue reading: ] The Nice Debate What is there to say about "Ministers of Debate," Zev Chafets' amiable NYT Mag profile of the debate team at Jerry Falwell's Liberty U.? It's mildly amusing. It helps undermine the "evangelicals are stupid" myth. It clues us into an... [ Continue reading: ] Comic Religion A visit to the comic book store reveals dueling impulses in pop culture religion: Atheist, in which our hero is a genius unbeliever doing battle with a host of demons he'll defeat through the power of rationalism; and American Virgin, in which our hero is chaste youth minister doing battle with televangelists and terrorists he'll defeat through the power of his untouched genitals. Sample dialogue from Atheist: "My dear, I don't believe in anything. I know, or I do not know. Belief is worthless." From American Virgin (to an evil prostitute who asks our hero who he's saving himself for): "It's God. And he's special as it gets." [ Continue reading: ] American Gods Virgins, senators, spiritual warriors, Gandalf, God's gift to women, terrorist angels, secret societies, big radio, little Buddhas, unfinished books, militiamen, Peter Singer, and the intimacy of killing: Jeff Sharlet's partial archive... [ Continue reading: ]  Word for Word, the Dumbest Sentence David Denby Ever Wrote "Only the West could have made a movie in which blowing up civic temples is a 'provocative' media statement." (From Denby's review of V for Vendetta) [ Continue reading: ]  Lost in the Shit Pile Martyn Oliver: For some, freedom of speech is under attack. For others, common decency and respect have been lost. For others still, there is mystification at the effects of post-modern, sacrilegious humor and repulsion at the violence. Apologists abound on all sides, and it only leads to the shit piling higher. But pushed to the periphery is the robbed and beaten individual: the victims of 9/11, of colonialism, of oppression, of fundamentalism, of stupidity. More at Killing the Buddha. [ Continue reading: ]  America Won't Be Happy! "The War on Christians" conference is coming to D.C., featuring a modified-A-list of conservative heavyweights organized by Vision America, including Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, Sen. John Cornyn, Phyllis Schlafly, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Tom DeLay, as well as some... [ Continue reading: ] Scientology Chef Isaac Hayes, who's been the voice of South Park character Chef for nearly a decade, is the butt of newspaper punchlines this week, after he quit the show over a recent episode mocking Scientology, Hayes' religion. Show co-creator Matt Stone's... [ Continue reading: ]  What Has Anything Got to Do with the Holocaust? Adam H. Becker On February 21 Syrian-American psychiatrist, Wafa Sultan, gave an interview on al-Jazeera television in which she criticized the Muslims of the world for wallowing in a resentful Medieval past. Her stark arguments were further articulated by an extended comparison to the Jews, who, according to Sultan, have demonstrated their virtues through their intellectual efforts and hard work, making something of themselves even in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Sultan's interview on al-Jazeera is only the most recent example of a tendency to employ the Holocaust as a key interpretive device and yardstick for correct socio-political etiquette among nations... [ Continue reading: ]  What Jesus Meant "Christ is not a Christian." Historian Garry Wills talks to WNYC's Brian Lehrer about his new book, What Jesus Meant.... [ Continue reading: ] Gospel Recruiters The Air Force Academy lawsuit continues, with plaintiff Michael Weinstein requesting an expansion of the suit to include the military branch's latest set of guidelines on the proper role of religion in cadet life -- which were edited down from... [ Continue reading: ] Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose Recently freed of the constraints of having to keep his job on the National Religious Broadcasters' board of directors, Pat Robertson is finally at liberty to speak his mind. And not one to let an opportunity like that go to... [ Continue reading: ] Gay Adoption After Pope Benedict called gay adoption "gravely immoral" and Massachusetts' Catholic bishops declared that Catholic adoption agencies, such as Catholic Charities, cannot be involved in arranging adoptions by gay couples, Boston's branch of Catholic Charities announced that it would no... [ Continue reading: ]  Equal Opportunity The Center for Reason crunches government numbers and suggests (relying, somewhat inexactly, on local religious demographics) that Christians have as many abortions as the general population, and that Catholics have more. While this will probably come as no surprise to... [ Continue reading: ] The Politically Expedient Word On Tuesday, Quakers and (some) other Christian groups opposed to H.R. 4437 will join with immigrant rights advocates to protest the pending bill which, if passed, will criminalize any assistance given to illegal immigrants and will also facilitate the building... [ Continue reading: ] Everything Is Not Permitted Slavoj Žižek, a rockstar in the world of pop-culture theory and psychoanalysis, tallies the recent results of religious fundamentalism and finds that Dostoyevsky's moral equation -- if God is dead, then everything is permitted -- has been reversed, so it... [ Continue reading: ]  What's the Matter with The Economist? Sharlet: The Economist generally wins points across the political spectrum for its sober, accurate reporting. That's why its hysterical, inaccurate Senator Sam Brownback puff piece -- and believe me, that's the polite term in this case -- is surprising.... [ Continue reading: ] Belief in Belief "People who believe in belief, he says, believe that civilization needs myths to live by, so we mustn't examine religious ones too closely. Belief in belief is the compromise formation of those who can't bring themselves to evince a naive... [ Continue reading: ] Conservative Stall The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which sets policy for Conservative Judaism, has postponed a long-awaited vote about rescinding their ban on gay rabbis and performing same-sex unions, sending four proposals concerning changes to current Conservative Jewish law back... [ Continue reading: ]  The Franklin Graham Show With Franklin Graham taking his father's place at the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the occasion's arrived for some cosmetic reimagining of who "God's Ambassador's" fiery, and occasionally mean-mouthed son, really is. In a long profile written by... [ Continue reading: ] Penis Monologues The Washington Post gives an interesting, if perhaps a bit credulous, report on campus conservatives who take an a la carte approach to defending "traditional values": picking a pet peeve, like the collegiate popularity of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues,"... [ Continue reading: ]  Pentacle Soldier Alternet on the failure of the National Guard to honor the religious preferences of one of its fallen soldiers, Patrick Stewart, whose widow has been unable to get the Wicca pentacle engraved on her husband's memorial plaque because the Guard... [ Continue reading: ] South Dakota Hearts Religious Virgins The passage yesterday of South Dakota's sweeping abortion ban, deliberately designed to prompt a challenge to Roe v. Wade and which provides no exceptions save abortions necessary to save the life of the mother, has popularized this PBS video clip... [ Continue reading: ]  In the Details It's not the devil in the details, it's God. God with a flair for design. The International Design Magazine examines holy architecture -- and holy clothing and multi-media -- in this month's issue, dedicated completely to the intersection of religion... [ Continue reading: ] Abramoff Blight The Abramoff scandal has one more fallout shower: turning off the so-called "September 12 Republicans" -- Jewish voters who change allegiances over the Bush administration's hawkishness on Israel and terrorism -- who now see Abramoff, a key part of Republican-outreach... [ Continue reading: ] The Fighting Quebecois Last week, a letter signed by 19 Catholic priests in Quebec, Canada, was published in the daily newspaper La Presse, denouncing the Vatican's position on homosexual issues, including the ordination of gay men and the Catholic Church's opposition to same-sex... [ Continue reading: ] The Barbarians A haunting and terrifying report from Craig S. Smith of The New York Times, who investigates the brutal murder of a young Jewish Parisian at the hands of a religiously- and ethnically-diverse, but equally poor and disaffected, band of the... [ Continue reading: ]  The NY Times Gets the (Social) Gospel The NY Times Gets the (Social) Gospel: The editors of The New York Times bring attention to the Ash Wednesday sermon of Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony, who urged his priests and lay Catholics to prepare for a massive... [ Continue reading: ] Ethical Discrimination A job advertisement for the University of Charleston in West Virginia that ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education this week stipulates that applicants for the Herchiel and Elizabeth Sims "In God We Trust" Chair in Ethics "must embrace a... [ Continue reading: ]  Ave Sharia Ave Maria, Florida's own gated city of God which was well-profiled in The Boston Phoenix last summer, is running into interference from civil liberties groups who oppose Domino's Pizza tycoon Thomas S. Monaghan's plans to build a Catholic utopia that... [ Continue reading: ] Embarrassing Peggy Noonan Opinion Journal columnist, former Reagan speechwriter and manhandled -- or rather, butch-handled -- airline passenger Peggy Noonan declares that she's reclaiming feminine modesty as her Lenten gesture. The response to Noonan's column last week, which dismissed the debate over port... [ Continue reading: ] Get It, Got It, Deny It The New York Times reports on the thank you note sent by newly-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to Focus on the Family head James Dobson, expressing his gratitude to Dobson for mobilizing his millions of listeners to support the... [ Continue reading: ] McKosher McDonald's goes kosher in Tel Aviv, changing its trademark logo to assure Israeli consumers that the fast food restaurants prepare food in keeping with religious specifications, and urging its franchises to conform with Jewish law regarding the preparation of food... [ Continue reading: ]  Good Catholics Alan Cooperman reports on the joint statement released yesterday by 55 Catholic Democratic House representatives, as part of a long-delayed reaction to the way John Kerry's Catholicism was questioned and dismissed as that of a "bad Catholic" due to his... [ Continue reading: ] What Would Jesus Do About Unitarian Heresy? England's Chester Cathedral has made waves with its recent refusal to let a Unitarian congregation hold a service in the Cathedral -- as the Unitarian Church has for the past three years -- declaring Unitarianism a "heretical" religion incompatible with... [ Continue reading: ] Spanish Civil War Fallout "''How is it possible that Spain, such a Catholic country, is experiencing this?'" John Ward Anderson of The Washington Post Foreign Service delivers a fascinating report on the growing Spanish schism between the new, socialist and culturally progressive government, and... [ Continue reading: ] "Origins of Life" Dies in Utah On Monday, the Utah House of Representatives defeated a bill (similar to one initially approved by the State Senate in January) that would have compelled high school science teachers to include anti-evolution caveats when teaching the subject in class. The... [ Continue reading: ] Have You Ever Had Any Unkind Thoughts About L. Ron Hubbard? Jeff Sharlet: That’s a question asked in a “security check” that’s part of the “auditing” process at the heart of Scientology, the religion created half a century ago by Hubbard, a pulp sci-fi writer. Auditing, as described by Janet Reitman in “Inside Scientology,” a fine exploration of the faith in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, is like therapy. Or like an interrogation. It’s a bit of a tomato vs. tomahto situation, which is what makes one of the photographs accompanying the story so apt -- a jowly Hubbard staring intently at an actual tomato, which he’s auditing with his “e-meter.” An e-meter is -- oh, just read the story. [ Continue reading: ] |