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

By Paul Wallace

…nomer Brother Guy Consolmagno, also in England, was busy talking about baptizing space aliens. Which, to me, sounded preposterous. But, after some contemplation, I’ve decided that it’s not preposterous after all. Last week, a new planet—Gliese 581g—was discovered orbiting a star a mere 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”) ha…

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

By Daniel Schultz

…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 law. Good that they think we’re a bunc…

Halloween, Evangelicals, and the Macabre

By John W. Morehead

…, 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, however, ramps up during the Halloween season whether the focus is the holiday…

We Were Here Before September 11th

By Amina Wadud

I’m part of the organizing committee in the early stages of planning for a conference about Islam in America. The fact that we were here before September 11th is one fact that keeps motivating us this time around. There have been plenty of conferences about Islam held in America, and there have been many discussions about Muslims who live in America, even if not in a conference. However, all of the dynamics changed after the terrorist attacks in…

Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

By Cody J. Sanders

…, I was terribly saddened. It is a tragedy when a young person completes suicide in the aftermath of daily torment and harassment. After this, I sat in stunned silence in front of my computer screen as news stories continued to appear about the suicides of 13-year-old Asher Brown, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, 13-year-old Seth Walsh, and 19-year-old Raymond Chase. Today, it is very clear to me that profound sadness and stunned silence is no longer a…

The American Media’s Longterm Ambivalence About the Papacy

By Peter Manseau

…one of his cover-cardinals, Eugenio Pacelli, eventually became Pope Pius XII, Time could claim status not merely as Catholic observer, but Catholic kingmaker as well. Readers hoping to gain insight into what it actually might mean to live as an American Catholic who was not a member of the clergy were better served elsewhere. Through much of its history, Time’s blind spot to certain kinds of Catholic stories was compensated by its sister publicat…

This Year in Satanism

By Joseph Laycock

…it to Cambridge. Several other Satanic groups have also shown increased activity—apparently jealous of Greaves and the media attention he’s received. For most, the year of Satanism has been either a sign of the apocalypse or a source of hilarious news items. But Greaves says their goal is to change the “socio-political dialogue.” For scholars of law and religion, this has been an unprecedented series of events that has forced a conversation about…

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

By John Wigger

…anted to know was how PTL’s rise and fall were connected. How does deep religious 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 fou…

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

By Gary Laderman

…rased difference and imposed uniformity for the purposes of power and classification. As Easter approaches and I read through the news, absorbing the cultural trends of the day, a lingering, increasingly vexing question comes to mind: what do “the Christians” believe? Over the span of a 24-hour news cycle, one hears about Christians in action with all sorts of spoken and unspoken moral commitments and sacred investments, but at the end of the day…

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

…gin Mary to announce that she would bear Christ. It is a date of great significance to Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, one of the major feasts focused upon the Virgin Mary. The Vatican has announced that this year on the Feast of the Annunciation the Pope will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. While it would be unfair to assume bad intentions, it’s yet another glaring misstep in the pontiff’s handling…