Religion Dispatches
Yesterday, 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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Oakland minister Harold Camping is betting that the world will end at the close of the work week—although he does seem quite a bit less certain this time around. Earlier this year, Camping captured the intrigue of North American cynics, believers, and the generally curious alike with his end-of-days prediction and the rapture of all repentant Christians on May 21, 2011. Those he managed to convince donated tens of millions of dollars from their…
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…
Read MoreScandal-ridden Bishop Eddie Long has temporarily stepped down from the pulpit of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to take care of “family issues” — his wife Vanessa’s filing for divorce from the troubled prosperity preacher. After some confusion in the press about whether First Lady Long had withrdrawn the divorce request, her lawyer confirmed the filing of divorce papers, and said that any further statements, if any, would come from her lawye…
Read MoreCharisma magazine reports: A Sioux City, Iowa pastor, prominent in the defeat of three Iowa Supreme Court justices last year for their same-sex marriage ruling, announced today that a hip-hop video calling Newt Gingrich “the GOP’s Kim Kardashian for his many infidelities on marriage—gay, straight and his own” would be delivered, via text messaging starting Thursday, to every registered Republican or non-aligned Iowa voter with a cell phone on rec…
Read More
Over at the website of the Manhattan Declaration, this is treated as a serious question in honor of Christmas: If Christ were never born, our history, our surrounding, every culture, and even the earth would be a vastly different place. Think about it, if Christ were never born, there would be no reason to have Christmas and your very birth is questionable (would your parents have met?). The post goes on to list a number of world events, inventio…
Read More…Aqua-Buddha college pranks notwithstanding, Rand Paul embraces Buddhist notions of the interconnectedness of everything and the illusion of difference; “nothingness” is The Word. Thanks to my colleague Jon for sharing. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word – Nothingness www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive…
Read More