The Iconography of the Pelican
Pelicans make for surprising symbolism after the disaster in the Gulf.
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Modern Vampires: Your Neighbors and Spouses
In studying the world of vampires, a young religion scholar is courted by MTV, forced to reckon with subtle energy (“psi”), and confronts the concerns of journalists who recall the disappearance of a colleague at work on a vampire story.
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King Dares Us To Imagine a Better World
For King, the challenges of a dawning age required a recognition that globalization had produced what he called a geographical togetherness and that this togetherness very much needed a spiritual grounding.
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Star Trek: Politics Anti-Matters
The Star Trek franchise was famous for its utopian social vision, going boldly where no popular entertainment had gone before. But the new movie takes us back in time, to an age when political divisions were in stark black and white.
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Are Christians Theologically Prepared to Accept Torture?
The results of a new Pew survey indicate that going to church increases the likelihood that people will support torture, especially if they are white evangelical Protestants. This is not good news.
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Carrie Prejean, God’s Prophet or Porn Star?
Miss California and her supporters seem oblivious to the possibility that theological consistency might lead to a conclusion that a god who prohibits gay marriage would not look favorably upon her breast augmentation surgery.
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Mexico’s War on Saint Death
The Mexican government has demolished dozens of shrines to Santa Muerta, claiming that the worship of this skeletal woman in a white cloak is a “narco-cult.” As resistance grows, so does this new religious movement.
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Know-Nothing Christians Irate Over Obama Comments
During a profoundly symbolic trip to Turkey the president assured the Muslim nation that America is not a Christian nation, sparking right wing cries that he’s “thrown Christianity under the bus.” The real problem here is the absence of religious literacy among the critics currently speaking in alleged defense of the Christian faith.
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Yes We Can/Si Se Puede: Remembering and Forgetting Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927—April 23, 1993)
President Obama got his campaign slogan from Cesar Chavez, but on this 16th anniversary of the great labor leader’s death we still have no national holiday to commemorate his legacy.
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Just Call Me Marie: When Women Become Priests
Marie Bouclin was excommunicated, or rather “self-excommunicated,” as the Catholic church puts it, for becoming a priest. But banishment from the church has not stopped her from living her vocation.
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