Religion Dispatches
…e nineteenth-century, of petroleum extraction and a peculiar form of revivalist, charismatic Christianity. Anderson’s film, which he directed and wrote for the screen (it’s very loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!) is a morality tale, suggesting how the pursuit of oil, and resulting riches, corrupts the human psyche. Environmental Studies scholar Brian Black has written extensively on the impact of petroleum production and consumptio…
Read More
…ion about the two books prior to this one I would have given you a laundry list of things I would have done differently. But Holy Ghosts was really a miracle for me in that it was the book where I found my true voice. This is my most personal writing to date. Though this book is a ghost story it is very much a memoir so the writing had to be personal. It’s a serious book, but anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit of a smartass and I make lots of mis…
Read More
…ming catastrophe and/or the next civil war. A self-described “Constitutionalist Christian libertarian” and “religious separatist,” Rawles stokes fears of a “globalist” agenda and of “the Second Civil War… caused by the gulf between the right and left—or between the godly and the godless—or between the libertarians and the statists—or between the individualists and the collectivists.” (This “American Redoubt” just happens to overlap quite neatly wi…
Read More
…that prompted the readers to indulge me—the book stayed on the bestseller list for nineteen weeks. Sand explains this sharp split among his book’s Israeli readers by pointing to a widening gulf between Israeli’s public intellectuals, many of whom are critical of a strident nationalism based on Jewish ethnic solidarity, and his colleagues in the large history departments of Israeli universities, who are enmeshed in an academic system that separat…
Read More
…e all the tragedies that occurred in the Soviet Union, it was a deeply moralistic society where each individual was expected to contribute to the common good and endure sacrifices for the benefit of future generations. The arts, the media, the education system, and the youth leagues all served to communicate a clear moral message that promoted altruism, social responsibility, and a strong work ethic. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, religion t…
Read More…gelical humility must have been put to the test as he sat on the stage and listened to Falwell Jr. introduce him to the Liberty University faithful. Falwell Jr. seized on the opportunity to politicize Carter’s appearance by comparing him to Trump, the man who Falwell Jr. has described as the evangelical “dream president”: Becky and I attended the opening of the Billy Graham Library in 2007 about one month after my father’s death. And I remember co…
Read More
…ve missionary work was about conversion and why? I think the idea of a simplistic form of conversion came more from evangelical youth culture—growing up in youth groups and going to events where people were urged to pray one prayer and their life would be changed. In hindsight, the missionary biographies I loved so much as a kid weren’t really about this kind of magical lip-service to God—they were usually about women who went and were very involv…
Read More
…t was used to score an indelible moment in Stephen Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, in which a little girl in red runs unnoticed through the black and white world of Nazi-occupied Poland. Only later do we see her in a pile of bodies. Despite its frequent dramatic use as a death knell, the popularity of “Oyfn Pripetchik” continues no doubt thanks to its theme of the resilience of Jewish memory. Following the lyrics above, the point at which the singin…
Read More…a media blackout of the event. Meanwhile, his own daughter has joined the list of folks condemning the event. She called his church a “cult” that uses “mental violence.” Not to be left out in denouncing things, Angelina Jolie also condemned the plan. President Obama called it a “recruitment bonanza” for radical Islamic groups. “Recruitment bonanza” sounds more like a white-collar job fair than an act of Islamophobia. Some shoppers buy kosher not…
Read More…f sexual deviance, it was, tragically, natural to add homosexuality to the list. Lowenthal’s bill has made it out of committee, but, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, several assemblymen abstained, “including Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford (Kings County) and Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge (Los Angeles County). Portantino expressed concern that the parts dealing with sex offenders would be stricken by the proposed law.” There have bee…
Read More