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Atheist Nazis? The Pope’s Cheap Atonement

By Susannah Heschel

Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…

Four Reasons for Optimism in the Wake of Tragedy—Insights from a Sikh and a Unitarian Minister

By Erik Martinez Resly

…nabling one to transcend victimhood. Through his teachings, the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan, reminds us: ‘[A devotee] has no pain, she is totally at peace. With her eyes, she sees only the One Divine. No one seems evil to her, all are good. There is no defeat, she is totally victorious.’ Erik: I can accept that God lived in the hearts of the innocent, endowing them with heroic strength. But in the heart of a murderer as well? It is tempting to dis…

‘Purity’ Guru Joshua Harris May Have Left Evangelicalism But He’s Still a Member of the Church of Patriarchy

By Sara Williams

…husband. Perhaps even more to the point, Harris’ brand is benefitting in a number of ways from his public apologies. Upon release, promotion of Harris’ documentary emphasized that he would receive none of the film’s profits and the film would be available to stream free of charge, as to be totally accessible to the women his books had harmed. This is true. When I visited Harris’ website, however, I discovered the catch: I was required to submit my…

Christian ‘Purity’ Guru’s Loss of Faith May Signal a Coming Reckoning For Conservative Christianity

By Elizabeth Shively

Joshua Harris, who literally wrote the book on Christian purity in the 1990s, announced in July on Instagram that he and his wife, Shannon, were separating after more than 20 years of marriage. Less than two weeks later, the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye (IKDG) dropped a second bombshell—he no longer identifies as a Christian. “I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus,” Harris wrote beside a picture of him looking out o…

Buddha as Scientist, Entrepreneur & Self-Improvement Guru

By Michael Schulson

The political satirist Tom Lehrer says that his genre became obsolete when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m afraid I had a similar reaction when I first heard of Buddhist Geeks, a conference organizer and “cloud-based sangha” designed to facilitate “conversations on the convergence of Buddhism, technology, and global culture.” In other words, the devotees of some of the most distracting, mindfulness-destroying, desire-driven innovat…

Evangelical PR Guru Signs Up for Romney Campaign Again

By Sarah Posner

Mitt Romney has added evangelical PR man Mark DeMoss as a senior advisor to campaign. DeMoss, who served on Romney’s Faith and Values Steering Committee in 2008, tells the Boston Globe he’s going to perform the same evangelical outreach he did for Romney again. In other Romney-evangelical news, the website Evangelicals for Mitt is up and running again, maintained by conservative Christian lawyer David French (who recently joined the American Cent…

The Sex Scandal Following Whole Foods’ Guru

By Michael Schulson

…ned with authentic caring.” Examples include Whole Foods Market, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and, somewhat mysteriously, Amazon.com, which is known for using underpaid temp-style labor in its warehouses and allegedly mistreating employees at its home offices. You don’t have to be a Marxist to question whether these institutions are “fulfilling every major value of the great spiritual traditions.” At the very least, that sentiment might seem ali…

Glenn Beck’s Cheap Grace

By Karyn Carlo

…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…

A Meditation on Shopping and Desire

By Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado

…We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping, whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee, we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless in…

Are Evangelical Films Destined to Leave Secular Audiences Behind?

By Daniel Silliman

…e success either. The opening weekend saw sales of more than $6 million in tickets. That’s the kind of number that will inspire others to try and figure out the formula for the faith-and-family blockbuster. Yet, with the cost of the film reportedly exceeding $30 million, it’s an open question whether or not the Left Behind reboot will get a second installment. The marketing problem of evangelical movies is still, stubbornly, a problem. The general…