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Should astrophysicist Martin Rees have accepted the Templeton Prize he was awarded last week?  ||  This is what blasphemy looks like:  A group of French Catholics has defaced Serrano’s Piss Christ.  ||  Nickelodeon premiered a new children’s TV show on Sunday, “Freedom to believe…or Not.”  ||  The death of God is so over:  Jon Meacham puts Rob Bell on the cover of Time and asks us, “Is Hell Dead?” (Read Revealer Becky Garrison’s take on the Bell & Piper show here. Watch Chris Matthews’ panel — with Andrew Sullivan, Norah O’Donnell, Joe Klein and Becky Quick — here.)  ||  “A professor of religious law at Benghazi’s Garyounis University, Osama el-Salladi, says that under the 41-year rule of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, religious institutions were as controlled as political life.”  ||  A truck carrying 3,888 bibles was stolen outside Moscow this holy week.  ||  Fraudulent churches, heal thyselves:  Senator Chuck Grassley’s three-year investigation of church financial fraud has produced a commission (from the likes of Oral Roberts University President Mark Rutland, Campus Crusade for Christ President Stephen Douglass and megachurch pastors Joel Hunter and Bishop Kenneth Ulmer) but no charges of misconduct.  ||  The presidential campaign to appear convincingly Christian is working.  ||  Mega Churches have turned away from the bible and it’s all Peter Drucker’s fault.  || Doomsday Capitalism! The 500-year cycle is coming to an end!  ||  “This budget deal is at least $1.1 billion sin against the poorest of this nation. And no one who voted for it deserves the appellation ‘pro-life.’Continue Reading →

Jesus, Pop Idol: Capturing the Tween Market

by Kristina Loew

There was a time when popular culture was a bastion of rebellion, a place where America’s youth could forge a new identity and give the middle finger to their parents. Not so these days, where purity rings have become fashionable, pop stars are giving regular shout-outs to Jesus and raunchiness is in remission. Could it be that the Christian right has finally infiltrated youth culture or is it just a new way to sell wholesomeness to a precarious demographic that is bringing in billions of dollars in business?

Using family values to sell family entertainment is nothing new. Everyone from Ozzie and Harriet to Britney Spears has employed them to market their products, their shows and themselves. Back in the late 1950’s Mouseketeer Annette Funicello was carefully marketed by Disney as the quintessential “girl-next-door,” someone who was chaste and defined the morals of the time. Even Elvis and Aretha Franklin rose up through the ranks of popular music singing gospel. Continue Reading →