Religion Dispatches
In the latest episode of my Bloggingheads show, Christianity Today online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey and I discuss whether evangelical women’s rejection of Rush Limbaugh’s misogyny will have any impact on either their position on the contraception coverage requirement or the presidential election: You can watch the entire program here; we also discussed the KONY12 controversy and Mitt Romney’s evangelical problem. (Click on the links in the prog…
Read More…Smaller religious movements such as Pagan groups are often able to thrive online despite their small size and lack of resources. Conversely, the internet has presented liabilities for well-established religious institutions, particularly organizations that feature a hierarchical structure or esoteric teachings. Today’s cyber attack confirmed these predictions. As an acephalous group with no organizational structure, Anonymous is exactly the sort…
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…control of the upper chamber. This more than anything explains the extreme online reaction Tuesday to a short tweet by Warnock, declaring “I am a pro-choice pastor.” To wit: Charlie Kirk: “You cannot be pro-abortion and also be a Christian.” Erick Erickson: “So not really a follower of the actual Jesus, but the one you’ve conjured in your head. Got it.” Graham Allen: “If you are ‘pro-choice’ pastor, you are not only NOT pastor. You are a crappy Ch…
Read MoreFor the last several months there has been a flurry of discussion—mostly online, of course—about the impossibility of a literal Adam & Eve (see, e.g., here and here and here). This ruling-out has been accomplished recently by the Human Genome Project, which indicates that anatomically modern humans emerged from primate ancestors about 100,000 years ago, from a population of something like 10,000. In short, science has confirmed what many of us al…
Read More…even be able to get bread at the supermarket. I think it’s because, in our online age, people want to be connected to stuff, to “real” things like soil and sweat and fruit. And I think that’s part of what’s behind the OWS protests. Their rhetoric is sometimes anti-capitalist. But it’s never anti-Steve-Jobs-capitalist. It’s anti-Goldman-capitalist. See the difference? One is a genius, the other a usurer. One is a person, the other a faceless corpo…
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…sterday, my mother called me in a panic. “Who won the game?!” I am looking online right now and I see that it is tied at fifteen, but I don’t know if that is a live feed. “Is it over?” Her voice was quivering with anxiety and guilt: “I was having lunch with your uncle—I forgot the game was on!” My mother waited with bated breath to hear if her favorite NFL quarterback—indeed, probably the only NFL quarterback in history she could name—had come thr…
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…the first of its kind in Arabic in the region.” Helem is also launching an online homophobia monitor. Participants in the Intersections International project were aware of the global implications of their conversation, with many expressing gratitude that the United States provides a safe place to have conversations that would be hard to hold in most Muslim countries. Greater visibility in the U.S. can encourage individuals and fledgling organizati…
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…hing on the dignity of the human person and sanctity of human life.” In an online video that featured montages with crosses in them, Cynthia Wenz, executive director of The Source for Women of Houston, explained her pregnancy center’s mission. “Our prayer, our calling is to reach every woman considering abortion,” said Wenz, who declined a request for an interview. “It’s obvious. God is calling us to expand our vision and stretch our faith. Our he…
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…s it takes to get us there. She is also a co-creator of Frequencies, a new online “collaborative genealogy of spirituality,” in which scholars, journalists, and artists prod subjects from Burning Man to This American Life. There has never been a better time to explore the intersection between Reverend Billy and the kind of academic discussion Kathryn Lofton has helped to forge. This summer, Billy and Savitri published a new book, edited by Columbi…
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…that do, I can understand their disappointment. After I saw the crit-fest online by my people, I felt both stupid and guilty for watching and enjoying this ‘dumb, sub-standard’ show merely for its entertainment value. I chided myself for supporting this imperfect representation of Muslims, and ignoring its major flaws. But then, I asked myself, how could I not? And reminded myself of Bombay Dreams. I watched All-American Muslim to show support fo…
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