a review of religion and media
Ashley Baxstrom: Step aside, Kardashian family. “Jersey Shore”? So last season. If you totally want to be on the cutting-edge of today’s reality tv-world, you need to really venture into the fascinating unknown. Pageant moms for the under-age? Been there. Swamp people? Done that. So what’s the most out-there, the scariest, and most interesting social group in America today?
Muslims! Thanks, TLC. Continue Reading →
Ashley Baxstrom: Maybe Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman haven’t yet convinced you that Mormons are cool? Perhaps the recent stream of “I’m a Mormon” billboards, taxi-tops and television ads don’t do the trick, even though one includes a guy with a hawk and another has a surfer girl? But that’s ok. When it comes down to it, we all know there’s really only one thing that bestows and conveys social status and awesomeness – and that’s fashion.
Remember Chick Tracts? Here’s a classic, dug out from the files by The Sensuous Curmudgeon.
Remember Chick Tracts? Here’s a classic, dug out from the files by The Sensuous Curmudgeon.
Amy Levin: Time for an update on #religion at #occupywallstreet? This week, Sarah Posner mediated a roundtable discussion with Religion Dispatches regular contributors highlighting particular religious moments of the occupy movement. Anthea Butler tells Posner says that Occupy Atlanta’s refusal to let civil rights protestor and Congressman John Lewis speak was a reflection of OWS “becoming slaves to the ‘process'” rather than accepting inspiration. The civil rights movement, like OWS, didn’t have a “complete consensus” either, and it was inspiration, not process, that sustained endurance.
Posner then questions Nathan Schneider about the role of self-identified religious groups in the movement like the Protest Chaplains and Occupy Judaism. Posner asks whether or not these groups are necessary for the success of OWS, or if religious activists are engaged in the movement in order to “reimagine the role of their respective religious traditions in contemporary political activism.” Schneider responds that the “ordinary trappings” of religion, like rituals and ceremonies, are needed in the movement; religious groups will only be able to get so far toward their own goals inside the “self-consciously non-hierarchical, revolutionary, and disruptive” environment of OWS. Continue Reading →
Rick Santorum to Family Research Council president Tony Perkins on the radio yesterday, about how single mothers are the government-dependent Democratic Party base:
Look at the political base of the Democratic Party: it is single mothers who run a household. Why? Because it’s so tough economically that they look to the government for help and therefore they’re going to vote. So if you want to reduce the Democratic advantage, what you want to do is build two parent families, you eliminate that desire for government.
Mary Valle: The 99, a comic series created by Naif Al-Mutawa, has gained popularity in the rest of the world but run into some suspicion here in the US. It’s about 99 superheroes who each embody one of the 99 Islamic attributes of God, but isn’t explicitly Islamic. Also: take note! 50 of the 99 are female. That’s over half. And! The female superheroines are modestly dressed, which isn’t a bummer, actually! I’ll let this story from i09 speak for girl and women comic fans everywhere.
Amy Levin: The days when the telephone created a sense of awe-inspiring enchantment are long gone. And our excitement over whatever we mean when we say “new media” – twitter? ipads? – has a decreasing shelf life of about a week. But we can still gawk at those using new media to meet their religious needs, and I’m not talking about the Pope tweeting (so last summer). There’s a new social media creation in town, and this one is for Christians only: the tableproject. Continue Reading →
Ashley Baxstrom: New in the world of right-wing medical care: meet the American College of Pediatrics, “a national organization of pediatricians and other healthcare professionals dedicated to the health and well-being of children.”
Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College and Clinical Advisory Board member of the American Association of Christian Counselors set up a comparison between the ACP and the American Academy of Pediatrics on his blog. Apparently proponents of the ACP have been trying to say that they’re the “leading association,” have more members and have been around longer – all of which just isn’t true, according to Throckmorton. Continue Reading →
