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Shariah-Approved Sex Aids, Abstinence-Only Goes to China, and Abercrombie Hijab…

By Michael J. Altman

…es can find “shariah-approved” products for “sexual health” at El Asira—an online shop attracting 30,000 visits a week. Teetotaling Mormons in Idaho grow barley for beer brewers. A Muslim mason who worked to rebuild the Saint Jean Cathedral in Lyon, France, has been immortalized as a winged gargoyle on the facade of the church. The inscription beneath his stone image reads “God is great.” In Germany, a team of researchers have built digital models…

Religion, Morality, and the Death of the American Soap Opera

By Katy E. Shrout

…ext day as teenagers primed for romantic entanglements—victims of what the online soap community affectionately calls SORAS, or “soap opera rapid aging syndrome.” Yet despite all the herky-jerky storylines and production choices, one essential appeal of a show like Days of Our Lives today is its connection with fan memory. The show encourages a nostalgia for past plotlines, as well as a nostalgia for the small town life that Salem would seem to re…

Jesus Goes to the Dark Carnival: Hell House Gets a Makeover?

By W. Scott Poole

…Free” tells a story of conversion against the backdrop of the Iraq War. An online preview of the script suggests that the narrative marries jingoism with true piety, portraying the heroes of the script, Corey and Kevin, as “living their dream of defending the country they love,” having gone to Iraq to “love and serve Jesus Christ, the Hero of all mankind.” This obviously suits the post-9/11 mood of many evangelicals in which America’s wars are Go…

This Just In: College Will Make You an Atheist

By Susan Henking

…hoosing your major, Web sites filled with advice, and even quizzes to take online to figure out what major would be best for you. Postmodernism as Gateway Drug to Atheism And, now, there has been an explosion of reporting on choice of college major—and religiosity—in the higher education press and the blogosphere. Both the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education reported on the ways this ritualized choice may (or may not) relate…

Studying Religion is Suddenly Popular

By Mark Hulsether

…e Academic Study of Religion (ASR), may be vulnerable. Last month Newsweek online launched a special section devoted to education—and, in somewhat of a shocker, offered the good news that Religious Studies is experiencing a burst of popularity on college campuses. The article, “Religious Studies Revival,” holds interest for anyone who has a stake in keeping the academic study of religion strong. And at first glance, this coverage seems like a pub…

RDNews: Oct 20, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…at it promotes “Constitutionalist Judicial Nominees,” told OneNewsNow, the online news service of Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association, that the “Ten Commandments would be removed all over the place. ‘Under God’ would be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. The death penalty would be banned. There’d probably be constitutional rights to all sorts of new things like human cloning and physician-assisted suicide. Racial preferences would pro…

Gandhi, his Grandson, Israel, and the Jews

By Shalom Goldman

…s article “Jews Fell Bapu Grandson—Arun Forced to Quit U.S. Institute Over Online Views.” I was in India at the time the story broke, and in Bombay when Arun Gandhi and his supporters staged a protest. Thus a news story that did not get wide coverage in the American print media (the New York Times chose not to cover the story) made headlines in India—in today’s media world, it seems, there are no more “backpage stories.” Exactly a month after his…

Conservative Christian Book on Obama’s Faith

By Bill Berkowitz

…Mansfield did an interview with Ben Smith, a writer for Politico.com (the online wing of the Politico news organization). In the column, titled “Bush Backer Pens pro-Obama Book,” Smith writes that the book’s “tone ranges from gently critical to gushing, and the author defends Obama—and even his controversial former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright—from conservative critics, and portrays him as a compelling figure for Christian voters.” Accordin…

Creationism v. Integrationism

By Arri Eisen

…scientists and teachers in Europe and North America. The Atlas, available online, is full of plain English and nice illustrations, containing many of the usual attacks on Darwin heard from Christian fundamentalists in this country. The author does go a bit further than most, making the intriguing assertion that all science since Darwin—including the fossil record, genetics, and the like—has successfully disproved Darwin, before going on to the us…

Maybe Millennials Are Just Realizing That ‘God is Dead’

By Hollis Phelps

…p hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.” Citing polling data, Evans notes that the problem is one of substance rather than style: “young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” In Evans’ view, millennials want a church that’s more progressive and less co…