Religion Dispatches
As I write, the news has just crossed the wire that Gil Scott-Heron died on April 27, at only 62 years old. He was among a select handful of the musicians most influential for the rise of hip-hop music and slam poetry, during its immediate pre-history from the late 1960s to early 1980s. I first heard Scott-Heron in the 1970s for his signature anthem of black militancy, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”; and I heard him on tour in the 1980s w…
Read MoreIt’s been a week since 17-year-old Zack Kopplin called out Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann to back up her assertions that there are Nobel Prize winners who endorse intelligent design. And even though Kopplin’s challenge has gotten a fair share of media attention, there hasn’t been a peep about it from Bachmann’s office. Here is Kopplin on MSNBC’s HardBall with Chris Matthews. Love his statement, “Presidential candidates shouldn’t be able…
Read More…ture ban on female, black, atheist, and Jewish judges serving in cases involving minority constitutional rights. If he’s right, then it’s even more of a slap for a judge they perceive as a lazy liberal to set them back on their heels. Indeed, Ware rebuked Prop 8 proponents by reiterating the entire point of having an impartial judiciary system—whether we agree with their rulings or not: “In our society, a variety of citizens of different backgroun…
Read MoreTuesday was announcement day for Jon Huntsman, Jr., the second Mormon former governor to join the field of Republican 2012 presidential contenders. His campaign team had chosen a classic location very much in the key of Ronald Reagan: Liberty State Park, New Jersey, where the candidate set up his podium against the backdrop of the Hudson and the Statue. (Even though you’d never know it from television close shots that entirely screened out Lady L…
Read MoreYesterday, Glenn Beck hosted his last show on Fox News, and the media coverage began in earnest to document his meteoric rise and decline since his first show in January 2009. Some breathe a sigh of relief that Beck will no longer reach millions of TV sets around the nation, while others will follow him to his paid-subscription internet show, Glenn Beck TV (GBTV, forthcoming in September). Much of the coverage relishes his decline into “extremism…
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N.B.: While ‘spoilers’ might be a misnomer in regard to a Terence Malick film, nevertheless a number of details of Tree of Life are revealed in the following essay. —eds. Since watching Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life a few days ago, I’ve been trailing my daughters: slowly, deliberately, unsure if I’m a cinematographer or a parent. In spite of my lifelong love of cinema (and teaching and publishing on the topic for the past decade plus), I ra…
Read MoreRamadan means late-night football practices from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. in Dearborn, Michigan. Meanwhile, Whole Foods is defending itself after a Houston blogger posted an internal email that advised local stores not to promote their halal products during Ramadan. A collection of relics from Pope John Paul II, including a capsule of his blood, will tour Mexico this fall. Rev. Roy Bourgeois has been officially dismissed by his religious order, the Mary…
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…-twentieth century in which three men (the “Meo Trinity”) proclaimed themselves to be God incarnate in the form, respectively, of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The man reputed to be the Holy Spirit allegedly died when he flung himself off a cliff, believing he would have the ability to fly. Later, in the early years of the Vietnam War, another movement spread which proclaimed that Christ would return, perhaps wearing American cloth…
Read MoreThe results of the meaningless Values Voters Straw poll are in. In sum: the perceived frontrunners, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, are not frontrunners here (polling at four and eight percent, respectively) and (no surprise) Ron Paul brought a lot of supporters to give him a victory at 37%. The big story coming out of the conference is not the straw poll results. Paul is renowned for his fervent supporters showing up for straw polls; Herman Cain, wh…
Read MoreWhile Romney-watchers feign shock in reaction to Mitt Romney’s People magazine confession that he once tried a cigarette and a beer (both forbidden according to the LDS Church’s dietary code, “The Word of Wisdom”), more substantial coverage this week is focusing on Romney’s service as bishop of his LDS congregation in Belmont, Massachusetts in the 1980s. On Monday, the Washington Post offered a revealing account of Bishop Romney’s interactions w…
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