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Do Space Aliens Need Baptism? The View From Gliese 581g

By Paul Wallace

…ere 20 light years away in the constellation Libra. This in itself is not too big a deal, because the discovery of planets orbiting other stars (termed “exoplanets”) has become a weekly occurrence. But this planet is special because (1) it’s massive enough to retain an atmosphere, and (2) it resides squarely in the center of the so-called habitable zone of its parent star, red dwarf Gliese 581. So far as we know (and that may not be very far, admi…

Commies, Blacks, Jews, the UCC and Other Threats to America

By Daniel Schultz

…tated from beyond the grave by Richard Nixon. And that’s when it hits me: good. Good that they’re lumping the religious left [sic] in with the scary people who want to distribute the money differently and help poor people. Good that they’re lumping us in with the people who think such radical thoughts as: conservative religious nutjobs should not be given a free pass to run the nation, and gays and lesbians should enjoy equal protection under the…

Halloween, Evangelicals, and the Macabre

By John W. Morehead

…; everything from candy to breakfast cereal marketed in orange and black, doors and windows festooned with fake cobwebs and, on a slightly less positive note, evangelicals intensifying their critique of all things macabre and “occultic.” American evangelicalism has always had a strong sense of evil which it battles in various manifestations—frequently in the form of popular culture. This sense of the presence of and confrontation with evil, howeve…

We Were Here Before September 11th

By Amina Wadud

…ted to keep their Islam in the closet. Then the events of September 11th shook the proverbial skeletons out of that closet. And lo and behold, now they are Muslims and they are the primary spokepersons about this new popular trend of Islam in America. Some even made a considerable amount of money off of their version of the “I am your friendly neighborhood Muslim; and I am an American;” as if Muslims didn’t exist in America before they became spok…

Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

By Cody J. Sanders

…with each successive news story about another gay teen hanging himself, shooting himself, or jumping off a bridge. As I saw the faces of these young victims and imagined the family and friends left to cope with the chaos created by their suicides, my lamentation began to morph into an indignant fury. My indignation grew as I shifted my gaze from the individual acts of suicide to the contexts in which these suicides are set. Suicide happens for nu…

The American Media’s Longterm Ambivalence About the Papacy

By Peter Manseau

…ican smokestack, it’s safe to say the face that emerges from the fog will soon also grace the cover of Time. Just under the wire for Holy Week, the traditional season of religiously-themed magazine covers, the new pontiff is sure to be seen in a gleaming soutane, his arms outstretched, suitable for framing within the red border that once announced a moment the world would stop to notice. In their former ubiquity, their former authority, the former…

This Year in Satanism

By Joseph Laycock

…early January the Temple released sketches of their statue. Peter Gilmore poo-pooed the design, saying it smacked of pedophilia. On Fox Business News, producer Bernard McGuirk suggested that Satanists should be lined in front of their statue and shot. Lawyers from the Satanic Temple demanded an apology. FEBRUARY In February, the media focused on Miranda Barbour, 19, who was accused of killing a man she met on Craigslist. The “Craigslist Killer” al…

More Than Big Hair and Money: Jim, Tammy Faye and the Media “Holy Wars” of the 80s

By John Wigger

…ious devotion become so entwined with money, sex, and celebrity on a Hollywood scale? A short synopsis might help: Jim and Tammy started the PTL network with half a dozen employees in a former furniture store in 1974. By 1986 PTL had annual revenues of $129 million, 2500 employees, a 2300-acre theme park, Heritage USA, and a private satellite network that reached into fourteen million homes in the US. That year, six million people visited Heritage…

What Do ‘The Christians’ Believe? Easter Reflections from a Non-Christian

By Gary Laderman

…nd the betterment of humanity through governmental action. Yet both sides look to Jesus Christ for guidance about health in American society. What do the Christians believe? For many, rap and hip hop are the devil’s music with no redeeming features. But the growing number of artists and outlets for Christian rap (like the Web site Holy Culture) are challenging many stereotypes and perceptions about how entertainment and evangelization mix to bring…

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…adding fuel to their fire seems ill-advised. Also, not to steal Chrissy Stroop’s gig, but it’s really not okay to make other people your non-consensual missionary project. And it’s nonsensical to try to convert a person—or a country—that’s already converted. Unless you don’t think they really are converted; and as we’ve already discussed, in light of the history of East-West Christian relations it’s easy to see this ritual as implying exactly that…