popular culture

Penance, a new iPhone app, gathers its sacred power through agnosticism. While existent applications for socially-networked religion like Prayer Wall or Manistone facilitate shared reflection on sacred realities beyond the crowds they attract, Penance draws instead upon the growing faith that social networking can miraculously generate spiritual orientation, evading with sacrilegious humor where one expects guidance. Behold: crowdsourced Catholicism.

The next best thing to a living, breathing Muslim is an approximation of one—that is, the silver screen. Why not? Movies explore the lives and experiences of Muslims in a format that can be watched as easily at home as on the train. Plus, a lineup of cool movies, foreign and domestic, will only make you, your friends, or your community look intimidatingly more sophisticated.

When a serious philosophical lecture on the origin and meaning of Santa Claus is interrupted by the tinkling of bells, jovial laughter, and the mysterious delivery of a case of beer, our writer has the chance to muse on his own former Christmastime convictions.

Paul Simon, Rev. J. M. Gates, and the meaning of Christmas.

I’m dreaming of a televised Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know.

Despite the efforts of those eager to see a “War on Christmas” at every turn the origins of this season’s traditions are no more Christian than those of Easter eggs or the Easter bunny. This was a time of goodwill and generosity long before anyone heard of a baby born in a stable.

Jesus was always flapping his gums about the poor, but not once did he call for tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Romans.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the most sacred concerns of Americans are also some of the most contentious political issues of our day.

It doesn’t take much to realize the main theme of A Fire in my Belly is death. More specifically, it is the vulnerability, penetrability, and perpetually possible disintegration of the human body. This fleshly mortality became especially real to Wojnarowicz in the still emerging AIDS crisis of the time. Thus, by necessity it is a deeply human and deeply religious artwork. Which does not mean these images are pleasant and easy to look at. No warm and fuzzy pop spirituality this.

By repeatedly asking what was in his heart, the FBI seems to have, not only sought to establish intent, but assumed that Muslim militancy is directly related to religion. Moreover, its operative assumption about religion was an implicitly Protestant one which conceived religion as an inward experience (faith) rather than the more Islamic conception of religion as the moral standard by which people ought to be judged. While the FBI was trying to ascertain the intent of Mohamud’s heart, Mohamud himself, by FBI’s own account of events, appears to have been preoccupied with creating sensational headlines.