a review of religion and media
Christian rocker Larry Norman moves on.
By S. Brent Plate: The first album I ever bought was Larry Norman’s Only Visiting this Planet (1972). I was probably about ten, and the album had already been out for a couple years, but I remember it all so well. (To this day, I could quote you pretty much the entire album’s lyrics.) The allure certainly had to do with this being my “first,” and the ways we all remember our firsts… Continue Reading →
Revealer contributing editor S. Brent Plate is evidently saving his best stuff for the all-new Religion Dispatches, where he has this to say about There Will Be Blood: “Here is mythology as a critique of mythology. This is why this film is worth watching: because it shows how the use of mythological structures and elements can be used against other, perhaps more oppressive stories. Propositional logic (the kind Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens use) offers straightforward, non-fictional language that makes truth claims and offers critiques. That may offer a viable critique of the ideologies of myth, yet here is another, more subtle, and I would suggest altogether more powerful way to approach myth. Let the fires burn themselves out.” Continue Reading →
Jeff Sharlet: Revealer contributing editor S. Brent Plate writes, “From stone tablets to scrolls, printing presses to the Internet, artists, journalists, and believers of all stripes have used the advanced technology of their age… Continue Reading →
Sharlet: Revealer contributing editor S. Brent Plate sent in the following commentary on Vanity Fair‘s special July issue dedicated to Africa. I let my politics get the better of me and at first rejected Brent’s commentary with a long rant about why. Brent graciously wrote back with his own thinking, and before we knew it we had what’s called an “exchange.” Continue Reading →
S. Brent Plate: Finally on YouTube: God himself. For the first time we find out the reasons for Down Syndrome, the Holocaust, and Celine Dion. We find out why there were TEN commandments. You know: ten fingers, ten toes, Letterman’s list. We find out that Job had a good tan… Continue Reading →
S. Brent Plate: Finally on YouTube: God himself. For the first time we find out the reasons for Down Syndrome, the Holocaust, and Celine Dion. We find out why there were TEN commandments. You know: ten fingers, ten toes, Letterman’s list. We find out that Job had a good tan… Continue Reading →
S. Brent Plate: Finally on YouTube: God himself. For the first time we find out the reasons for Down Syndrome, the Holocaust, and Celine Dion. We find out why there were TEN commandments. You know: ten fingers, ten toes, Letterman’s list. We find out that Job had a good tan… Continue Reading →
S. Brent Plate: Madonna is on the cross again. Though if you were one of the millions with nothing better to do on the eve of Thanksgiving than tune into NBC, you missed it. Continue Reading →
By S. Brent Plate: In the midst of another Lenten season, film lovers can find a plethora of movies depicting the life of Jesus offered in the local video rental store or via their satellite dish… Continue Reading →
A round-up of recent religion news.