popular culture

What happens when the flagship vehicle for mainline Protestant voices starts to falter?

The initial rush of schadenfreude is gradually replaced with a genuine affection for the “good guys,” and righteous frustration at the machinations of the villains.

While much of the media had no trouble detailing the religious commitment of the Muslim killer of an army recruiter, most profiles painted Scott Roeder as a right-wing, anti-government, anti-abortionist, with a prior arrest history and mental problems. His connection with extremist Christian groups, apparently, is irrelevant.

What sort of religious institution honors a “run-like-hell Catholic” and the first Asian-American woman Rabbi, among others?

Something is missing from the world of instant communicating, microblogging, and social media: the body. There’s no face-to-face in Facebook, and no turning back. Are we becoming a network of phantoms?

Highlights of a literary night in Rome: “You know what will happen,” she exclaims. “They’ll burn the books… before the furniture… before the clothes… they’ll burn all the books… They always do.”

A reality show about a failing family. The upholding of Prop. 8. There’s hypocrisy afoot in our culture.

The prequel to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, features a “theo-physicist” on a mission to save the Catholic church from itself and perhaps the first action-movie villain driven to his diabolical acts by an addiction to intelligent design theory. Why are Americans so attracted to metaphysical thrills?

Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Hamlet, Abu Ghraib, and why the Eucharist involves the live audience in a way that Mel Gibson’s The Passion never could.

Recently released results from a survey of mainline clergy reveals that, when policies are portrayed honestly, the number of clergy who support same-sex marriage, adoption, etc., nearly doubles.