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Paul Crouch, Architect of Prosperity Gospel Televangelism, Dead at 79

By Sarah Posner

…Best known for his controversially extravagant spending, with his wife and business partner Jan, Paul Crouch survived many a media exposé. He and his wife built their network, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, using tax-exempt donor funds, frequently, former insiders have charged, for their own enrichment. In 2004, the conservative Christian financial watchdog Ministry Watch issued a scathing report on the network, charging that its “huge cas…

United Methodist Church Votes Against Israel Divestment

By Shalom Goldman

…n the agenda—among them the call for the church to divest from firms doing business in Israel. On Tuesday the conference voted against a motion that the church divest from three international firms that have business interests related to Israel’s military rule in the Palestinian territories: Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard. Two thirds of the delegates voted against the motion. On Monday May 1st, the day before the vote on Isra…

Why David Sometimes Wins: What We Must Learn From Cesar Chavez

By Frederick Clarkson

…to be citizens, has been integral to the business model of California agribusiness from the beginning; starting with unemployed Chinese railroad workers in the 19th century, and, eventually, Filipino, Japanese, and Mexicans hired by growers to work in the fields. When an influx of white refugees from the dust bowl were immortalized in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the plight of the farm workers came briefly to national attention. It did n…

U.S. Bishops (Who Lit Religious Liberty Fuse) Urge Civility

By Patricia Miller

…rts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. But, as the Times reported, it was the Catholic bishops who made the manifesto a political reality when they “took the lead” in opposing the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, suggesting that it was an “infringement of religious freedom” to require religious institutions or Catholic business owners to cover birth control: Soon bishops were holding r…

Oral Roberts, Pioneering Televangelist, Dies

By Anthea Butler

…healing into the mainstream, helping it to become the multi-billion dollar business it is today. Before Jakes, Creflo, Bakker, and Swaggart, there was Oral. He was smoking—not cigarettes, but with the fire of the Holy Ghost. Like many Pentecostal evangelists and preachers before, Roberts’ call to ministry arrived in the midst of sickness. Not expected to survive a bout with tuberculosis, Roberts at 17 years of age heard God’s voice promising to he…

Reality as Revelation: “Hail Caesar!” is the Coen Brothers’ Most Religious Movie Yet

By Elijah Siegler

…s were speaking of Hail, Caesar! in religious terms. “It’s about the movie business and life and religion and faith. Faith and the movie business,” Ethan Coen told an interviewer. In another interview, they promised that the film in development would answer big questions: “‘It’s big,’ says Ethan, grinning. ‘We’re interested in the big questions. And we don’t (expletive) around with subtext. This one especially. Though their movies usually revel in…

The Curious Case of Mormons and LGBT Rights

By Alan Michael Williams

…merous scholars argue about all “rights” legislation: that they are in the business of shoring up difference in the interests of private property. The swath of Republican leaders who signed on to a February amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of marriage equality reveals how same-sex marriage is now squarely associated with the notions of limited government and the free market. (Ironically, because the Church views traditional marriage as…

I Booed Romney For Jesus

By Anthea Butler

…e of the big battles of the civil rights movement—voter suppression—is the business of the Republican Party today. What separates Vice President Biden’s speech from Romney’s is an appreciation and respect for cultural differences. While Biden is not a natural preacher, his energy and lively delivery resonated with the crowd. It did not seem forced to hear Biden say “We are our brother’s keeper, we are our sisters’ keepers” as he closed out his spe…

Note to GOP Voters: “Political Freedom” Comes With Social Responsibility

By Marcia Pally

…want to make government somewhat smaller, reducing taxes and de-regulating business and banking to prod growth and jobs. Or they can vote for candidates who pledge to make government, as Rand Paul said in last week’s debate, “really really small.” Paul lambasted even Marco Rubio’s support for the child tax credit on the grounds that it’s “liberal spending.” Oddly enough, however, for the party of conservative values, a prime principle of conservat…

Dear Dr. Dobson, Concern Troll

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…italism, disguised as Christianity, isn’t hidden for long as he re-aired a portion of his 1992 interview with now-deceased financial expert Larry Burkett, who advised: ”There’s no better time to start a business than when everybody else is going out of business.” In other words, the least of these are struggling—time to cash in! Forgive me, Dr. Dobson, if I choke on your sympathy….