Religion Dispatches
…those of us whose lifestyles are dependent upon a ‘religious’ devotion to cheap oil. The deepest irony of all is that BP, along with the other oil companies, has come to function as a god. The truth, buried beneath all the oil and punditry, is that our devotion to this false god has led to the suffering of innocents, in the oceans and beaches, in the marshes and ecosystems, and in our communities. We have been slow, too slow by far, to realize th…
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…y from Victorian sentimentalism. Such angels are on sale at reduced price; cheap wares for cheap faith. It would be an error, however, to fully dismiss pop culture angels. Despite the fact that representations of angels in film and television, comics and music, paperback novels and posters, are filtered through market concerns, such pop culture can still speak to human meaning—and because of that they merit our attention. Besides, the bulk of art…
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…cause of “healing.” That is, Confederate monuments stood as trophies of a cheap reconciliation where white people of “both sides” of the war could celebrate each other’s mutual valor. Perhaps they would never agree on who was in the wrong, but for the good of the nation, (white) Americans should put their feelings of ill-will behind them. This act of “reunion” was often symbolically performed by veterans meeting on a battlefield and shaking hands…
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…peoples who still live on the land that he called “swampy,” “virgin,” and “cheap.” In reality, Mennonites settled on the long inhabited territory of Treaty 1 and Treaty 5. As two scholars of religion and who avidly follow the news, and whose Mennonite ancestors also settled in the territories of Treaties 1 & 5, we were angered but not entirely surprised by this news cycle juxtaposition, in which the ongoing violence of settler colonialism was blit…
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…tack in light of his recent participation in the campaign against Amendment 1 in North Carolina. Referring to Bakker’s theological “feel-good stance” as “cheap grace,” Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League attributed Bakker’s preaching of a “toxic and counterfeit gay-affirming gospel” to being injured by the church as a child. “In some ways he’s right,” Bakker told me in response. “It’s called empathy.” He continued: “Every time someone…
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…he whole thing was preposterous. You couldn’t do both. They made the movie cheap and released it to the home market. It only had a limited run in theaters the following year Peter Lalonde said secular critics would “hammer us just because of the message” that Jesus is coming back. It made no sense to “Hollywood up” the movies with big budgets and a wide release. The Lalondes’ approach angered the authors of the books, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye,…
Read More…tween the bunnies-and-eggs version of Easter, and the church-service version. Merchandisers are wise to define Easter by marshmallow chicks and colorful baskets, rather than bring theology into it. But there are always exceptions. One is the Oriental Trading Company. Founded to create cheap plastic toys for carnivals, OTC is now a leading supplier of cheap plastic stuff for church groups and Christian schools. Their party supply catalog always con…
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…, which can apparently feed you for seven years, costs $2,800. Bakker also offers survival gear like a portable fuel-less generator and filter-equipped water bottles. The show offers plenty of reasons that would-be shoppers should stock up on all these survivalist goods. Bakker spends most of his time on-air discussing how current events match up with biblical prophecy, and the 2016 election has been a frequent theme. He’s voiced concern that if H…
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…abwe, just as overlooked and beleaguered… Big companies have always sought cheaper labor, moving from North to South in the United States, looking for the hungriest, the most desperate, the least organized, the most exploitable. Press coverage of conditions in Apple’s factories in China has been anything but glowing. Yet when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, says he’ll give his personal wealth to charities of his choice (many of them in Silicon Valley), he…
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…run in the final game, comes only when his religious devotion ends, as he offers an off-color declaration of American individualism, “F— you, Jobu! I do it myself.” While the idea of a religious exile losing his foreign religion and converting to the American Dream provides laughs in Major League, the history of human rights abuses in the sacred spaces of Cuba creates real-life anguish for Cuban-Americans like ESPN journalist Dan Le Batard, who w…
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