popular culture

Rather than approaching the tagging as a criminal act, however, church leaders decided to take the tagging seriously as an expression of something spiritually meaningful—a cry for help, perhaps; even a mocking expression of religious skepticism. They approached it relationally, using the church building itself as a social media platform, and responding with their own message of hope.

Most mornings, I get up early and ride my bicycle. I do this because I love to ride and because I could stand to get into shape. Before I leave, I kiss my wife on the cheek and tell her that I love her. She replies in her tender, throaty whisper, “Be safe.”

If Lord of the Rings was the epic for the Cold War era, then Game of Thrones is the epic for our time, with the disappearance of the clear oppositions that once enabled easy discrimination between friend and enemy.

There is a general misconception that men among the community look to plural marriage as a means to satisfy their lust and exploit and degrade women. It is this stereotype that we would like to dispel.

Free Arabs describes its work as “a unique combination of investigative journalism, trendy reporting, arty activism and impertinent satire”—all enshrined in the site’s slogan: “Democracy, Secularism, Fun.”

Oday Aboushi talks about being drafted by the New York Jets.

In the wake of a series of high-profile April Fool’s pranks and a hoax at the expense of mega-preacher Joel Osteen, the question remains: what makes us believe in bacon-flavored mouthwash, a Martian invasion, or the renunciation of faith by one of the world’s most famous Christians?

Please, well-intentioned church people, have a plan for when someone tells you they’ve been raped or are depressed.

The faith of Jason Collins, who recently came out as the first gay athlete in a major American sport, doesn’t fit the model of culture war conflicts the media expects and the religious right demands of its spokespeople.

On a recent trip through the region, via Istanbul, I took some pictures to capture some of the spirit of the place for lack of a better term. When you bring that many people together, chasing after money and the chance to strike it big—again, think American Wild West, for better and worse—you get… things that surprise you.