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Gas For Two Bucks a Gallon? Bachmann Taps a Pipeline to the American Sacred

By Rosamond C. Rodman

…er between Kentucky and Indiana, causing indefinite closure of a major east-west interstate and river crossing, it wasn’t long before it came to be known as “Shermageddon.” These references reflect something larger, truer, more apt than the events they were coined to describe—in Eliadian terms, they were profane events positioned within a sacred reality, namely the invocation of a biblical reference to Har Megiddo or Mount Megiddo (in the Hebrew B…

No One Can Tell I’m a Muslim: All-American Muslim Debuts

By Su?ad Abdul Khabeer

…All-American Muslim, which premiered this past Sunday on TLC, would be “All-American Orientalist,” replete with images of women in hijab trying to break free, patriarchal fathers, and exotic immigrant traditions. And it was. But it also wasn’t. Set in Dearborn, Michigan, the show follows five Muslim-American families as they, “struggle to balance faith and nationality in a post-9/11 world.” All-American Muslim certainly does traffic in the “women…

US Offers Help For Investigation of Bangladesh Killings

By Peter Montgomery

…void a runoff, which will be held on June 5. She is reportedly running neck-and-neck with her opponent Pedro Pablo Kuckynski. Dominican Republic: Evangelical leaders decry outside support for LGBTs, tell pastors to ‘guide’ voters Evangelical leaders urged political candidates to resist what they said were efforts by foreign groups to force abortion and gay rights on the country. From Acento.com, with English via Google translate: The Christian Act…

Orthodox TV Channel Offers Gays One-Way Ticket Out of Russia; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ing it would “prevent ‘certain groups’ from stirring up homophobic and anti-Western sentiment,” reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. But a gay rights activist says it is the conversation promoting the amendment that is inflaming homophobia. RFE/FL cites survey research saying more than 80 percent of Georgians have strongly negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Social research on homophobia in Georgia shows that attitudes toward gays are str…

Why The Book of Mormon (the Musical) is Awesomely Lame

By Jared Farmer

…tive, conspiratorial, theocratic, repressive, despotic, anti-democratic, un-American, un-Christian fanatics who followed a false prophet, read phony scriptures, worshipped in strange buildings, lived in desert communes, grew long beards, and kept women in political and sexual oppression. Mormonism was equated to white slavery. Bestselling authors such Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Zane Grey cast Mormons as depraved villains. Latter-day Saints were va…

Pawlenty Stars in American Civil Religion: The Movie

By Michael J. Altman

…ets up himself and these “everyday Americans” as the symbols of the Puritan-American work ethic. Finally, our exceptionalism and our hard work give Americans a special destiny. The third myth in the ad is Manifest Destiny, the narrative from American history that argues a special purpose for our country to spread its influence around the world. In the 19th century, Manifest Destiny meant expansion out west. In the twentieth century, Woodrow Wilson…

Celebrate Jesus with Weird Merchandise!

By Gwynne Watkins

…e, which is probably why there’s a such clean break between the bunnies-and-eggs version of Easter, and the church-service version. Merchandisers are wise to define Easter by marshmallow chicks and colorful baskets, rather than bring theology into it. But there are always exceptions. One is the Oriental Trading Company. Founded to create cheap plastic toys for carnivals, OTC is now a leading supplier of cheap plastic stuff for church groups and Ch…

Are Evangelical Films Destined to Leave Secular Audiences Behind?

By Daniel Silliman

…ting it didn’t deserve to even be called a Christian movie. This was a “run-of-the-mill disaster flick” with little to no connection to faith or the theology the story is supposed to dramatize. The magazine got noticeable pushback from readers whose objections were loud enough the magazine’s film review editor, Alissa Wilkinson, responded. She ended up arguing that, at the very least, Christians aren’t bad Christians if they want their movies to h…

Pop-Culture Angels Are More Than Just Embarrassing Kitsch

By Ed Simon

…the popularity of these tabloids can be directly attributed to their tongue-in-cheek entertainment value. Touched by an angel — every Sunday At the beginning of the period of prestige TV known as the “Third Golden Age of Television,” when David Lynch was directing Twin Peaks and David Chase was just launching The Sopranos, one of the most popular shows—albeit incredibly distant from being critically acclaimed—was a hokey, family friendly fantasy…

Updated: My Work on Confederate Monuments Leaves This Christian Ethicist Distrustful of Calls for Reconciliation and Healing

By Ryan Andrew Newson

…ver agree on who was in the wrong, but for the good of the nation, (white) Americans should put their feelings of ill-will behind them. This act of “reunion” was often symbolically performed by veterans meeting on a battlefield and shaking hands. Reconciliation was won either by actively promoting white supremacy (“At least we both share this superiority together!”) or else not discussing such a divisive topic. It is for this reason that Frederick…