Search for "cheap airline tickets to harrisburg pa phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…political machinations, cultural inspiration, and social movements is a separate reality from the growing number of nones. Both need coverage. But the Gallup data raises questions that I’ve rarely seen addressed in recent years. What does faith look and feel like in flyover country? As a cub reporter, I wrote about the greying mainline, their internecine squabbles and financial woes. But thirty years later, they’re still standing. Did we get it w…

Sacred&Profane: The Living Dead

By Gary Laderman

…a few years ago to dress up as Elvis (not the young one, I’m afraid!) and participate in the ghoulish fun of resurrecting and playing with the dead. While I have a predilection for the macabre generally, and tend to be a little too preoccupied with the dead specifically, I am not opposed to the celebratory, harmless Halloween activities associated with dressing up in outlandish costumes, knocking on strangers’ doors, and consuming lots and lots a…

The Real Goal of Pro-Life Movement Support for Scott Brown: Kill Health Care Reform

By Sarah Posner

…k together to support and promote adoption as an alternative to abortion. Apart from the parental notification requirements, Brown sounds a lot like Obama (at least the iteration of his position toward the end of the 2008 campaign and into his administration). But for a Republican, that “people of good will on both sides of the issue” talk is hardly going to make the pro-life movement swoon. Yet Brown’s campaign pledge to vote against abortion fun…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…crowd by saying: But we also know that God is always in control. You know, part of the thing—part of the problem with this campaign is we’ve been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light. We’ve been put in a hole, if you will. And it reminds me of a passage in Psalms 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. That’s what we’ve got to do. And he inclined it to me, heard my cry, brought us out of a horrible pit out of clay and set my feet on the roc…

Travolta Airlifts Scientology, Supplies, to Haiti

By Becky Garrison

…were one of the religious groups kicked off the site for proselytizing and passing out pamphlets under the guise of providing “pastoral care.” Their counseling services included promoting their hotline number on Fox News under the title “National Mental Health Assistance.” In 2002, Tom Cruise and executives from Scientology’s FASE (Foundation for the Advancement in Science and Education) launched “Downtown Medical” (also called “New York Rescue Wo…

Sacred&Profane: Wilco Worship and the “Churn” in American Religion

By Gary Laderman

…ary moments of transcendence and regeneration—like those often reported by participants in the revival-like, religious atmosphere of momentary collective musical communities found in jazz clubs, rock shows, and raves, to name only a few. The connection between music and religion is deeply rooted in human history and widespread across the cultural spectrum, with many theories suggesting integral links between the two in the formation of human socie…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…erapists. However, even if Spiegel had correctly identified the nature and participants in the debate, she still would not have gotten it quite right. To his credit, Schumacher-Matos does a better job when he reviews material given to him by Spiegel and her editor Anne Gudenkauf. Among other things, Schumacher-Matos read an article by Mimi Swartz and published in the New York Times Magazine about same-sex attracted religious people who accept bein…

U.S. Bishops Reject Pope Francis’ Priorities

By Patricia Miller

…anasia), vocations and ongoing formation (shoring up the rapidly declining number of priests and nuns) and, of course, religious freedom (Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who arranged Kim Davis’ meeting with Pope Francis, received two standing ovations from the bishops.). Then the debate turned to the USCCB’s quadrennial “Faithful Citizenship” voting guide. The bishops had voted earlier to revise the 2007 edition prepared for the 2008 election, whic…

Jesus Christ and Super Stars: How The Holy Rolled Mainstream in Pop Music

By Alana Massey

…who hears our prayers. But these ultra-devout performers share a peculiar space with a number of other artists whose personal faiths are inconsequential to their public personae but whose fluency in the holy plays out in, well, mysterious ways. Lana Del Rey’s catalogue runs deep with both religious imagery and sentiment; waves of apostasy crash over moments of divine revelation and then reverse course back into faith again. She may have claimed “G…

Orthodox Jews Begin to Reckon with Sexual Abuse

By Paul Berger

…the Orthodox enclave of Lakewood, New Jersey, died of an overdose in an apparent suicide. After his death, Shua’s parents discovered a letter he had written criticizing the Jewish community for not facing up to the problem of sexual abuse. They published the letter online, reigniting the debate over abuse. Shortly afterwards, their house was destroyed in a suspected arson attack. The boy who now claims to have been abused by Yosef Kolko also com…