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Spinning Ft. Hood
RD associate editor Hussein Rashid scrutinizes a cross-section of reactions to the Ft. Hood massacre, from those eager to blame Islam to a number of Muslim-Americans.
A Daily Utopia: Creating Our Moral Values Every Day
The author of a new book talks to RD about the radical that lies beneath our everyday practices, whether ethics requires religion, and the “education of desire.”
Beautiful Dreamers: A Documentary Asks “What is God”?
Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results. Turns out the question—“What is God?”—reveals more than a person’s faith.
Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens
A new documentary called <i>Collision</i> follows the collegial debate between new atheist Christopher Hitchens and conservative evangelical Doug Wilson. Spoiler alert: Neither budges and both gloat to the respective choirs they’d been preaching to. Is this the best we can do?
Good Hair, Good God! The Divine Politics of African-American Hair
Chris Rock’s new documentary scrutinizes the politics and pathos of black hair care: from the beauty salon to the hair show, and from chemical relaxers to the Indian hair that fuels the hair weave industry.
Reverend Billy For Mayor: Is He For Real?
Performance artist or man of God? Agitator or politician? The Church of Life After Shopping’s Reverend Billy has a choir and a congregation like a preacher—does he have to be a “real” clergyman to minister to the masses?
Mother (Nature) Will Eat You: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist
Von Trier’s terrifying rumination on the triad of “pain,” “grief,” and “despair” reminds us that, in contrast to the pronouncements of politicians on what is natural and normal, in nature eating one’s young is not too far out of the ordinary—especially in times of stress.
Atlanta Falcons “Defend the Dome”: Football, Religion, and Existential Power
The Atlanta Falcons, defenders of the Georgia Dome, “fought, harassed, stuffed, smothered, and smacked” their way to victory last week. What is it about football that brings out such primal intensity in its fans?
Slouching Towards Lake Wobegon; Searching for Meaning in the Google Cloud
Has the shift from sociability to social-networking left Garrison Keillor clinging to his Wobegone Lutherans of yesteryear? What of the glaring problems of those “simpler times?”
Harry Potter Gone Bad: Lev Grossman’s The Magicians
The characters in this adult, anti-fantasy novel of hope (and magic) lost appear to teach the lesson that Harry Potter probably ended up hating himself, and life, after the end of book seven. But would a less dour novel have been so highly praised?
Is the Boson Particle “Hated by God”?
Two eminent physicists have hypothesized that the Higgs boson might be hated by God to such an extent that if one occurred it would go back in time and stop itself from being made.
Art as Religion, Museum as Temple
For the Greeks, museums were sacred places dedicated to the muses. How is it that the Catholic Church got into the pagan shrine business?
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided Explores the Dark Side of Positive Thinking
A new book reveals the historical roots and conservative uses of the positive thinking movement, showing how it encourages victim-blaming, political complacency, and a culture-wide flight from realism.
Bright-Sided Recalls Mark Twain’s Travails
Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book on the dangers of Positive Thinking recalls Mark Twain’s obsession with the 19th century’s most famous mind-over-matter exponent: Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy. Are critics just jealous?
Lars von Trier is the Antichrist Best Film Director in the World
In the great tradition of Socrates and Kierkegaard, Lars von Trier realizes that his role is to enable the audience to ask questions and confront themselves.
How Mormonism Built Glenn Beck
Some are familiar with Glenn Beck’s teary Mormon conversion story, but what many are not aware of is the extent to which Mormonism has given Beck key elements of his on-air personality and messaging—and how it may shape the future of American conservatism.
Republican Gomorrah Documents the Christian Right Takeover of the GOP
Despite resorting to demonization and dated paradigms, Max Blumenthal’s muckraking first book traces the fascinating history of the religious right and its web of gothic and aggressive conspiracy theories—making a convincing case that the Republican Party has been “shattered” by a right-wing religious movement.
The Revolution Will Be Whispered: An Excerpt From Everywhere a Guest, Nowhere at Home: A New Vision of Israel and Palestine
In this lyrical excerpt, author Kim Chernin envisions a new solution that rises up from the Sinai desert nurtured by two little girls.
Jennifer’s Body and Why I Like Buffy’s Body Better
Has a hotly anticipated new horror film about a murderous cheerleader subverted the mythos of woman as the source of evil or just the opposite?
Jewish “Women of the Wall” Defy Law to Pray
A powerful documentary, “Praying in Her Own Voice,” chronicles twenty years of struggle for religious equality at one of Judaism’s most sacred sites and asks: How can there be unity when half the population is silenced?