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Is Joel Osteen, Success Mag Cover Boy, Really “God’s Best”?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…good things. In his comfort, he encourages others to get theirs while they can, because he thinks this is “God’s best.” The rich man has a message for Osteen and other positive, prosperity, preachers, and their eager followers. There’s a lot of talk these days about who’s going to hell and who will end up in heaven. Some are certain of who is going where. But, if we’re talking about what “God’s best” is really all about—I have a feeling that has l…

I Miss Tina Fey

By Julie Ingersoll

…of the event was remarkable. Speakers and honorees were mostly Catholic, local Catholic churches were noted. Yet video clips honoring “right-to-life” leaders were mostly the religious right types: Mike Huckabee, and of course Sarah Palin. Catholics and religious right leaders have long made common cause on abortion but the cultural differences between the two groups is strongly discernible. Heroic Media uses television, websites and billboards to…

Niqab and Short Shorts

By Hussein Rashid

…eir lives? Do they not deserve the protection of the state? Or is objectification acceptable as long as it is for the pleasure of the men writing the laws? The next step in this sort of protest is to wear the niqab and nothing else. Then, the women will get tickets, not for being nude, but for being clothed. In my opinion, that would show the absolute absurdity of the state trying to control women’s dress. I have written elsewhere that this sort o…

Answers in Genesis Seeks Tax Breaks for New Theme Park

By Lauri Lebo

…arian. In addition to Noah’s Ark, which developers claim will be built to scale, there will also be a replica of the Tower of Babel, a walled city similar to ancient times, live animal shows and a children’s play area and a 1st Century Medieval Village. There will be no roller coasters or other thrill rides. AIG’s partner in the theme park project, Ark Encounter LLC, is a for-profit business based in Missouri. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear attended…

Everything You Think You Know About the Dark Ages is Wrong

By Nancy Marie Brown

…many 400,000); Gerbert’s French monastery owned less than 400. Many of the caliph’s books came from Baghdad, known for its House of Wisdom, where for 200 years works of mathematics, astronomy, physics, and medicine had been translated from Greek and Persian and Hindu and further developed by Islamic scholars under their caliph’s patronage. In the world Gerbert knew, Arabic was the language of science. During his lifetime, the first Arabic science…

New Film Chronicles Unlikely Friendship in Battle Over God and Guns

By Sarah Posner

…ecution that need to be dispelled, and of racial fears among white evangelicals. “In the average evangelical white person’s mind, who’s more likely to commit a crime against me?” he asked, answering himself, “A black male. Especially a young black male.” For both McBath and Schenck, while there may be political answers to gun violence, their diagnosis of the problem is a spiritual and moral one. “It’s a spiritual and moral issue when people are dy…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…Ireland: Sinn Fein sees parallel between marriage equality stance and advocacy for Catholics A July 1 marriage equality march drew a large turnout, which Chairperson of Sinn Féin Youth in Derry Caolán McGinley called a sign that marriage equality should be brought forward now; the Democratic Unionist Party has consistently blocked action on marriage equality. Sinn Fein has drawn a parallel to its efforts on behalf of Northern Ireland’s Catholics:…

Huckabee Channels Rushdoony

By Julie Ingersoll

…able, R.J. Rushdoony reveals a foundation of American History of philosophical and theological substance. This series extends through 1865, the year that marked the beginning of the secular attempts to rewrite history. There can be no understanding of American History without an understanding of the ideas which undergirded its founding and growth. In “Why History Matters,” for example, Barton says, “if you do not see the divine hand working behind…

The Trouble With Francis: Three Things That Worry Me

By Mary E. Hunt

…perspective, it does not make sense to ordain more people to a closed clerical caste headed by the Bishop of Rome, however socially progressive he may be. Rather, beneath all of these movements for change has been the working assumption that a new participatory, democratic administrative model must evolve. Key to that model is a deeply diminished authority role for the pope and a much stronger emphasis on the pope’s function as a symbol of the uni…

London Calling: “Our Great War Is a Spiritual War”

By Elizabeth Drescher

…e using the new media of the day (vernacular spiritual texts for common education and political broadsides for common expression) to “assert the rights of the laity to the intellectual, as to the material, goods of the institutional church.” For medieval rebels influenced by the teachings of John Wyclif, clerical ownership of extensive, untaxed monastic lands facilitated a shifting of the burden of public finance, particularly that required for un…