Category: Timely

Frey Takes Jesus to the Highs and Lows of New York

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The Final Testament of The Holy Bible, by James Frey (Gagosian Gallery, 2011)

by Mara Einstein

With only a handful of shows left, Oprah has selected James Frey—yes, the same James Frey she publicly humiliated for “lying” in his memoir A Million Little Pieces (after making it a bestseller)—to be among the chosen few to get one of the most coveted slots in broadcasting. It turns out Oprah apologized to Mr. Frey in 2009, three years after publicly castigating him. (Am I the only one who missed it?) Seemingly, the two former feuders have been looking for a time to present the reconciliation more publicly, and with full Oprah Show fanfare it will happen before her last show airs on May 25th.

What makes this appearance particularly surprising is that the show will not only review what has occurred in Mr. Frey’s life over the last few years — he’s written some not-so-great books, co-authored a young adult book series, and tragically lost his 11-day-old son to a genetic neuromuscular disorder — the appearance will also, more importantly, promote his latest work, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, perhaps the last book ever to be promoted by the woman who put publishing back in the black. From the title alone, this would seem like a slam dunk for Oprah, a woman who readily mentions Jesus and God on her daytime talk show (and has inspired endless commentary on her faith). However, what’s inside Frey’s book isn’t what one would expect from the outside. Continue Reading →

The Evangelical Adoption Crusade

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Former Revealer managing editor Kathryn Joyce has a new article in the May 9 print edition of The Nation. You can read it online here.  You can listen to Nation editor Betsy Reed and Kathryn talk about the evangelical adoption movement here.  An excerpt from the article:

As a way for conservative evangelicals to reclaim the social gospel message from liberal churches, adoption is a perfect storm, too, seemingly defining antiabortion activism as more truly “prolife”—or “whole life,” as one Bethany staffer coined it—while providing a new opportunity, as recent orphan theology texts explain, to spread the gospel. In Reclaiming Adoption, Cruver bluntly declares, “The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel.”

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Using "Demographic Winter" To Thwart Global Access to Family Planning

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What was once a rallying cry by U.S. evangelical organizations to limit access to birth control here and abroad (see former Revealer managing editor Kathryn Joyce’s 2008 article at The Nation, “Missing: The ‘Right’ Babies”) is now a Vatican topic for discussion at a UN panel. Continue Reading →

Using “Demographic Winter” To Thwart Global Access to Family Planning

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What was once a rallying cry by U.S. evangelical organizations to limit access to birth control here and abroad (see former Revealer managing editor Kathryn Joyce’s 2008 article at The Nation, “Missing: The ‘Right’ Babies”) is now a Vatican topic for discussion at a UN panel. Continue Reading →

Using “Demographic Winter” To Thwart Global Access to Family Planning

Posted on by

What was once a rallying cry by U.S. evangelical organizations to limit access to birth control here and abroad (see former Revealer managing editor Kathryn Joyce’s 2008 article at The Nation, “Missing: The ‘Right’ Babies”) is now a Vatican topic for discussion at a UN panel. Continue Reading →

Marketing Philosophical Theologyas Romantic Thriller

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by Jo Piazza

Fedoras have made a comeback as of late. Their recent prominence in fashion is underscored by their function in the recent Matt Damon thriller “The Adjustment Bureau” where the hats imbue their wearers with mystical powers allowing them to circumnavigate from the West Side to the East Side of Manhattan by crossing through a single door and adjust a person’s destiny with a tip of their brow. Needless to say the door thing comes in handy since crossing midtown during rush hour can take at last 45 minutes.

But the fedora doesn’t provide the niftiest tricks of “The Adjustment Bureau.” The truly grand feat was disguising a film steeped in philosophical theology as a romantic thriller. Is it a romance? Sure? Thrilling? Sometimes. But more than both, it was a serious screed on the existence and interference of god in everyday life.

That predestination in the film is seen as an elaborate plan spelled out in a leather bound book created by someone called the Chairman and it’s dictums carried out by a stable of middle management minions in wash and wear suits does seem to make it an apt parable for our times. Continue Reading →

Defining Women's Health at Catholic Universities

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From the report, “A Scandalous Relationship:  Catholic Colleges and Planned Parenthood,” released last week by the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic organization that works to expose “scandalous activity” at Catholic colleges and universities:

Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on abortion and contraception, we discovered referrals to Planned Parenthood for “health” services, internships and fellowships with Planned Parenthood, seemingly boastful disclosures of employees’ past work with Planned Parenthood, and other ties to this and other “pro-choice” organizations. The problems are spread across dozens of institutions, with occasional concentrations at highly secularized institutions like Georgetown University and Seattle University, two leading Jesuit institutions.

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Defining Women’s Health at Catholic Universities

Posted on by

From the report, “A Scandalous Relationship:  Catholic Colleges and Planned Parenthood,” released last week by the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic organization that works to expose “scandalous activity” at Catholic colleges and universities:

Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on abortion and contraception, we discovered referrals to Planned Parenthood for “health” services, internships and fellowships with Planned Parenthood, seemingly boastful disclosures of employees’ past work with Planned Parenthood, and other ties to this and other “pro-choice” organizations. The problems are spread across dozens of institutions, with occasional concentrations at highly secularized institutions like Georgetown University and Seattle University, two leading Jesuit institutions.

Continue Reading →