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The New Manson Family or Teens at “Play”?

By Joseph Laycock

…figure returned to haunt our media in the form of two gruesome murders. In Houston, a pair of teenage boys murdered a 15-year-old girl and told authorities it was part of ritual to strike a Faustian pact with Satan, while in Sudbury, Pennsylvania, confessed teenage murderer Miranda Barbour announced last week that she was “a high ranking official in the Satanic world” and had murdered at least 22 people before losing count of her victims. While we…

Scope Bacon, Twttr Hoaxes & Joel Osteen’s Big Reveal

By Deborah Whitehead

…onfirmed”) by NPR, ABC News, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, the Houston Chronicle, and many other local news outlets and blogs. The real Joel Osteen Ministries began to receive inquiries. The earliest official denial came from the real Joel Osteen’s Twitter account on April 8 in response to a tweet: “It is a false rumor. Pastor Joel is not leaving the church. -JOM Team,” it read. The media coverage then shifted to reporting on the hoax:…

How Not to Talk to the NAACP

By Joanna Brooks

…ed Mitt Romney was going to win any votes in that NAACP convention hall in Houston. For so many reasons. For the fact that he is running against Barack Obama. For the fact that his own record on civil rights is modest, especially in comparison with that of his father, George Romney. And for the fact to many black voters Mitt Romney is a stand-in for a faith tradition that did not desegregate its priesthood until the late 1970s. No one imagined Mit…

The High Church of Art

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…inner space. And then he served as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (1961-1967). The shows Sweeney curated, the work he collected, and the artists whom he knew personally, read like a Who’s Who of the Modern: Pierre Alechinsky, Corneille Beverloo, Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Burri (chapter 4), Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Eduardo Chillida (chapter 7), Stuart Davis, Robert Delauney, Marcel Duchamp (chapter 3), Lucio Fontana, Paul…

Is Heavenly Mother Making a Comeback in Mormonism?

By Joanna Brooks

…ould not be talked about. In 1996, Brigham Young University Professor Gail Houston was fired for publicly describing her personal relationship with her Mother in Heaven, including her use of “meditation” and “visualization” to deepen that relationship. Houston’s case brought BYU under censure from the American Association of University Professors. But new evidence suggests that the taboo might finally be easing. Research funded by the BYU Women’s…

‘Soul of Yoga’ at Stake in Texas Regulation Push

By Andrea R. Jain

…(TWC) informed the program directors of yoga teacher training programs in Houston and Dallas that they may be running career schools as defined by Chapter 132 of the Texas Education Code. They had already sent such letters to directors in Austin. Arguing that the regulation of career schools benefits consumers by monitoring programs, ensuring that they are legitimate businesses, and providing an avenue for student complaints, the TWC requested di…

Founding Father John Adams’ Advice to Rick Perry: Don’t Meddle in Religion

By Warren Throckmorton

…The Response—A call to prayer for a nation in crisis” (set for August 6 in Houston), names some of those unsolvable problems: “financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters.” One of the endorsers for Gov. Perry’s event is historical document collector David Barton, who often cites the Founding Fathers in attempts to legitimate his central thesis that the United States is, and was intended to be, a “Christian Nation.” Surely, then…

New Patriarch, Same Patriarchy: Despite Glowing Praise For New SBC President, There’s Just One Problem

By Caroline Matas

…day,” lawyer, abuse survivor and SBC advisor Rachael Denhollander told the Houston Chronicle. “Ed Litton’s character and positions give me hope that significant positive change is possible for the denomination.” Indeed, Litton agreed to an independent audit of the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse issues, a move Southern Baptist author and speaker Daniel Darling lauded in his triumphant USA Today opinion piece as an important step to “stop sexual abu…

Rick Perry’s Jesus Imperative: A Report from Saturday’s Mega-Rally

By Sarah Posner

…n’t have all the answers. Only the Lord does.” Joyce Thompson, who came to Houston from San Antonio with a friend, echoed a persistent theme to me over breakfast at our hotel: that Christianity is somehow under siege from enemies. Thompson, who described herself as a 66-year-old Tea Partier, tearfully said, “I can’t understand people who want to destroy our country.” When I asked her who those people might be, she replied, “It’s a Muslim thing. It…

Pentecostal Prayer Gangs: New Film Documents Religion in a Brazilian Prison

By Nick Street

…ader. What was the culture of the prison? At night, there was one guard for 800 prisoners. In the Rio prison system there’s no real government presence; state control in the prisons is just a façade. The prison gangs are the most powerful presence, but the church exerts a strong influence too. There were about 400 inmates in the gang camp inside the prison, and 40 to 50 in the church camp. The rest were neutral people who kept to themselves in the…