a review of religion and media
Religion & Media Current Events
PREVIEW SCREENING
WRITING IN WATER 水书
A film on the social life of calligraphy” 书法的集体生活
(42 min., Angela Zito 司徒安director)
Tuesday, March 6, 6:00PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Department of Cinema Studies
721 Broadway, 6th Floor, Michelson Theater
Free and open to the public.
Seating is limited and is available first-come, first-seated.
* * * * * Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. * * * * * Continue Reading →
Come see me, Paul Raushenbush (HuffPo), Laurie Goodstein (NYT), Bruce Clarke (Economist) and others discuss the state of religion in the media on March 20th at 4:30 at NYU’s Rosenthal Pavilion. Here’s a description:
A moderated panel discussion with leading journalists and broadcasters on issues and trends around they way in which religious identities and communities are represented and reported in the media. The panel will explore the challenges and barriers within the current media landscape that further division and fuel prejudices. They will also identify ways in which the media can be used as a tool to advance understanding and coexistence. The discussion will offer opportunities, methods and resources that enable social activists, religious communicators and aspiring journalism students to be a part of the solution of addressing these challenges. The audience is targeted at a mix of religious communicators, social activists, scholars and NYU journalism students. The event is envisioned to be delivered in partnership with NYU Center for Media and Religion, Odyssey Networks and Religion Communicators Council.
Come see me, Paul Raushenbush (HuffPo), Laurie Goodstein (NYT), Bruce Clarke (Economist) and others discuss the state of religion in the media on March 20th at 4:30 at NYU’s Rosenthal Pavilion. Here’s a description:
A moderated panel discussion with leading journalists and broadcasters on issues and trends around they way in which religious identities and communities are represented and reported in the media. The panel will explore the challenges and barriers within the current media landscape that further division and fuel prejudices. They will also identify ways in which the media can be used as a tool to advance understanding and coexistence. The discussion will offer opportunities, methods and resources that enable social activists, religious communicators and aspiring journalism students to be a part of the solution of addressing these challenges. The audience is targeted at a mix of religious communicators, social activists, scholars and NYU journalism students. The event is envisioned to be delivered in partnership with NYU Center for Media and Religion, Odyssey Networks and Religion Communicators Council.
Our founding editor, Jeff Sharlet, was on NPR this week talking about religious freedom, what it means to assign the Christian label to the American population, and the long history of Christian persecution rhetoric in U.S. politics. Listen here.
“There were never school shootings when prayer was in school.” The Ohio school shooting, some believers have pointed out, comes on the approximate 50th anniversary of 1962’s Engle v. Vitale, a Supreme Court decision that ended school prayer. I would like to add that a few other laws have changed since 1962.
I’m not a done-sold Melissa Harris-Perry fan but I’ve been enjoying watching her new show, oddly named MHP, on MSNBC. Here’s a clip of MHP, a professor at Tulane, taking on The Help, a feel good movie about the Jim Crow South.
“Debbie does Radical Muslim Fundraiser.” Really. Stephanie Butnick points us to the sexualized headlines Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat, was subjected to last week.
“D’oh my God: faith in The Simpsons,” a piece at The New Humanist by Andrew Mueller, examines what The Simpsons, TVs longest running show, really never got right. (h/t David Farley)
“A nihilistic dictatorship of relativism.” Mark Silk quotes Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete to get us closer to the real nature of the culture wars.
Analyzing Santorum’s “Meet the Press” back-track–he recently accused the President of having a “phony religion” and has some face to save–The New Yorker‘s James Wood, theology aside, finds something particularly secular and even–gasp!–rational humanistic in the Republican Presidential candidate’s words!
Note, too, that all this talk about making man the objective sounds quite like the supposed heresy of rational humanism. If you took away the theological context of Santorum’s screed, you would have a program for secular politics: Since we are here to serve man, then we should start getting busy with projects of political salvation, like universal health care, environmental protection, the alleviation of poverty, and so on.
Amy Levin: I’m not sure God would be too happy with Santorum lately – I mean, it’s one thing to defend religious liberty in the name of a Christian nation, but it’s another to use petty language to reference divinely ordained scripture. Despite his claim that he was not criticizing the President’s Christianity, Santorum’s Ohio speech that claimed Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible,” made serious headlines last week. Phony? I don’t think I’ve heard that verbal jab since 6th grade recess – now that’s an abomination. Continue Reading →
Amy Levin: I’m not sure God would be too happy with Santorum lately – I mean, it’s one thing to defend religious liberty in the name of a Christian nation, but it’s another to use petty language to reference divinely ordained scripture. Despite his claim that he was not criticizing the President’s Christianity, Santorum’s Ohio speech that claimed Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible,” made serious headlines last week. Phony? I don’t think I’ve heard that verbal jab since 6th grade recess – now that’s an abomination. Continue Reading →
Nora Connor: According to Salon’s Wajahat Ali, the conversion of Oliver Stone’s son Sean to Islam last week prompted a worldwide Muslim face-palm. Why, the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are wondering, can’t we get a convert with more upside? In a nod to one of Dave Chappelle’s best skits, Ali “reports” on the first worldwide celebrity religion draft, wherein the Muslims attempt to free themselves of Shaquille O’Neal and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If you’re looking to boost your own profile, perhaps by adopting an African country as some sort of goodwill/school building/voice for the voiceless project, this handy chart will help you avoid stepping on any fellow-celebrity toes. Hint: South Africa is Oprah’s. Looks like Gabon, Chad and Equatorial Guinea are still up for grabs, though.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has identified something that “transcends cultures, regions and ethnicities”: Muslim hatred of Christians, with Nigeria as Exhibit A. Patrick Ryan of RD takes exception to her analysis and many of her facts. Human Rights Watch observes that ordinary citizens of all confessions are suffering in Northern Nigeria, caught between Boko Haram’s attacks and the indiscriminate reactions of Nigerian security forces (also: either HRW’s Eric Gutchuss actually said Nigerian security forces must scrumptiously adhere to the law, or VOA news needs a new copy editor). Meanwhile, other news of Nigeria suggests that there may indeed be a human characteristic that transcends cultures, regions and ethnicities, just not the one Hirsi Ali thinks. Former Halliburton/KBR executive Albert “Jack” Stanley, having been sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison (rather than the recommended seven) explained what led him to orchestrate $180 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials and $10.8 million in kickbacks to himself:
Albert “Jack” Stanley told a federal court on Thursday his decision to bribe Nigerian officials in order to win enormous construction contracts was fueled by “ambition, ego and alcohol.”
Where is Jesus’ foreskin? Listen to David Farley discuss An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town on NPR’s Rick Steve Show.
Does Daddy Know Best? Ann Pellegrini on the nature of recent attempts to further limit women’s privacy and reproductive choice.
Are imagination and science really at war? An excerpt from Lawrence Lipking’s “Facts and Dreams” at The New Republic:
To some extent the so-called conflict seems bogus. A benevolent reading of Blake’s proverb [What is now proved was once, only imagined” from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell] might reduce it to common sense, or to a maxim that any scientist might follow in applying for a grant to test an idea. No idea, no funding; no imagined Higgs boson, no CERN. In this respect the hypothetical construct that drives attempts to prove or disprove it is not the opposite of science but its prime mover. Imagination and proof couple together as tightly as mind and body, or as Blake’s visions and the books that he makes with his hands. Great scientists are visionaries, too.
Can Romney break the Hoover Curse?
Is Obama the Devil? Ok, ok. Is he anti-religion? Social conservative Steve Chapman writes at Reason, that Obama hasn’t been all that bad for faith-based organizations, critiques that he’s anti-religious freedom be damned.
Can a woman be feminist and pro-life?
How much money does the state of Indiana give to “family values” organization Indiana Family Institute each year? Andy Kopsa does the accounting at Nuvo.
What’s so funny about the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia’s recent Fatwa? Paul Mutter tracks journalist Hamza Kashgari’s extradition for tweeting about Muhammad.
What happens when a Catholic hospital merges with a non-denominational one?
What is informed consent? Governor Bob McDonnell, who opposes Virginia’s mandate that all women seeking an abortion be given a sonogram (often requiring an invasive procedure), still loses points for allowing that such information is “informed consent.” McDonnell said, “Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state.” Sure enough. But don’t we think pregnant women know they’re pregnant? How much information must patients be given? How can the state determine when a patient really understands the procedure they face? How can a doctor? These questions are asked and answered all the time. Check out Thaddeus Pope’s recent notes on a “futile care” case in Canada. Continue Reading →
By Becky Garrison
Despite recent efforts to mainstream its image, Exodus International, a network of ministries formed over 30 years ago to “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality,” appears to be on the decline. As reported by Truth Wins Out, a non-profit organization that fights anti-gay religious extremism, attendance at Exodus International’s latest Love Won Out conference, drew at most 400 people, a far cry from the 1,000 in attendance during its heyday when Focus on the Family organized these quarterly ex-gay symposiums. This drop in attendance follows a meeting convened by Exodus International President Alan Chambers on November 16, 2011 to explore how to keep the organization from social and economic oblivion. Continue Reading →
Observations from a few hours spent at the 136th Kennel Club Dog Show
By Ashley Baxstrom
We gathered, one week ago, like so many pilgrims flocking to a holy site.
Or rather, flocking to a site where the objects of our devotion gathered. Was it the idea of a place in which generations had come together for more than a century, first in 1877 at Gilmore’s Gardens (the Hippodrome), and now here? True, most of the time Madison Square Garden plays host to feats of athletic prowess or demonstrations of theatrical and musical creation. But for this weekend, it was ours. The bright screens overhead glowed with our insignia, our group’s name. Green felt track covered the arena, an ice rink no more (though betrayed by a distinct chill in the air). And everywhere you look, we, the worshippers, and they, the worshipped.
Because it’s not about the place. It’s about the puppies. We’re all here to admire them, gaze at them with love and devotion. Me, I’d like to pet them. I’m not a member of this congregation, just a brief visitor, and I came for puppies. I came because my friend’s boss had tickets and let us borrow them for the morning. It’s like borrowing a parishioner’s pew, sitting in their seat, but the parish is so big nobody knows you don’t belong. They smile and nod at you, because you’re one of them, we’re all in this devotion together. Continue Reading →