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Why The Advocate‘s Choice of Pope Francis for Person of the Year is a Mistake

By Anthea Butler

…e is forcing the United Methodist church to perhaps take him to trial and strip him of his credentialing—simply because of his belief that the Methodist Book of Discipline is discriminatory. Rev. Schaefer is not just talking, but he is walking the walk—standing up for his son, same sex marriage, and his deeply held beliefs. That is the mark of a person of the year. While I like Pope Francis as much as anyone, I need concrete actions to back up the…

Pop-Eye: Meat The Wrestler

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…, “Cassidy” (Marissa Tomei) is also portrayed as meat, working at a local strip club easily imagined as a neighbor of Tony Soprano’s “Bada Bing” in Noplace, New Jersey. Cassidy and Randy both use their bodies, and are praised and employed for that reason, and that reason alone. Their meat is ogled and evaluated as it gyrates, bumps, humps, withstands abuse—all while having to meet certain standards of an accepting, usually discriminating public wh…

Religion Profs Critique PBS’ God Documentary, Call it Simplistic

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…craft engaging narratives. In sum, those of us sitting comfortably in our cheap desk chairs in our sterile offices in the nation’s colleges and universities have no higher ground to stand on. While we all labor to maintain an appropriate level of nuance, complexity, and context in our work, there is no doubt that we could write bigger books and assign our students more reading to gain deeper contextualization and fit more people and more themes a…

Sarah Palin and the Politics of Victimization

By Randall Balmer

…ager for attention. The puppy piddled in the corner more than once, taking cheap shots at political adversaries (including McCain campaign apparatchiks) and using the annoying, sophomoric reference to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat” Party. But Going Rogue was not unpleasant. The second book in the Sarah Palin œuvre, however, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, crosses the line from cute puppy bouncing on his back legs…

Doubt v. Predator: A Vatican II Parable

By Gabriel Mckee

…his tale are people, to be sure, but they’re also symbols, while the axis around which the story turns is ecclesiastical power. John Patrick Shanley’s first film since the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan vehicle Joe Versus the Volcano addresses many of the American Catholic Church’s gravest concerns of the last 50 years; most obviously the abuse scandals, but also the shrinking priesthood, the changing role of women, the civil rights movement, and the cross-po…

Note for Today

By Amina Wadud

…a better way to choose. Later I will comment on how the logistics on the ground are managed as a way to suggest how someone coming after me might narrow this choice. I would prefer a lot more interactive communication as the preparations go along. I also hear from friends that they’ve had better communications before departure; so the right company goes a long way for the ‘before’ part. I’ll ket you know about during and after. White I just folde…

RDBook: Apocalypse Without God

By Nathan Schneider

…of fertilizers and pesticides on a massive scale that seep down into the ground water. I believe that to be is to be connected. Until we start thinking relationally, we can’t adequately address the problems that we face. The difficulty, at least of the last decade or so, is the prevalence of an oppositional ideology in a relational world. If this continues, the consequences will be disastrous. It’s interesting, as I read After God, I’m reminded o…

Romney Goes to Bat Against Reid in Nevada

By Joanna Brooks

…ast two decades, more than 1.4 million people moved to Nevada in search of cheap housing and boom-time fueled hospitality, tourism, and construction jobs, more than doubling the state’s population. Now, those speculation-and-spending fueled good times are gone. That volatility does not treat mild-mannered Mormon politicians well: be they Reids, or Romneys. Just last week, Jan Shipps, a longtime scholar and canny observer of Mormon experience, wage…

Can a Greek Monastery Be Ground Zero of Global Financial Meltdown?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…imating its 2009 deficit at roughly 3.7%. It is currently estimated to be around 14% and seems to grow larger every time some new oversight organization takes a look at things. The current situation amounts to a $1.2 trillion national debt, which cashes out to roughly one quarter of a million dollars for every Greek citizen employed in the country today. What made matters even worse was the cultural fact—also evident in Italy, but nowhere near th…

The Social Science Animal: Brooks Argues for Emotion over Reason

By Beatrice Marovich

…But instead of inspiring figures of human potential, they come off more as cheap foils that Brooks is using to market his theories to the wealthy, literate class of policy wonks that he hopes will take his ideas seriously. More, Brooks is no Rousseau. And no novelist. If there is something mildly, warmly inspiring about his theoretical claims, they fall flat when explored through the medium of these sadly hollow characters. Brooks is perhaps best…