a review of religion and media
by Amy Levin: Ever since Madonna and Tom Cruise carried the banner for Kabbalah and Scientology, respectively, New Religious Movements began frequenting the proverbial red carpet in religion news coverage more than ever before. Continue Reading →
The latest issue of Cultural Anthropology features an article by Revealer writer Yasmin Moll (read the entire issue here) titled, “Building the New Egypt: Islamic Televangelists, Revolutionary Ethics, and ‘Productive’ Citizenship.” (You can read Yasmin’s article and the entire issue here. You can read Yasmin’s articles for The Revealer here.) Continue Reading →
From James Fenton’s review of the Broadway musical by the creators of “South Park,” “The Book of Mormon,” at The New York Review of Books:
From the point of view of the Mormon missionaries, the attitude of the natives toward Almighty God is crudely dismissive, and expressed in language that causes gasps of tickled outrage from the audience. But it is impossible to reconcile this happy-go-lucky indifference to the Supreme Being with what we have encountered in recent history when the African churches have had their say on the future of, for instance, the Anglican Church. What often comes back at us out of Africa, by way of Christian culture, is a sharp Victorian rebuke for our backsliding. It has nothing happy-go-lucky about it.
A giant congratulations to The Revealer‘s founding editor, Jeff Sharlet, recipient of the Molly National Journalism Prize, named for Molly Ivins and sponsored by The Texas Observer. The award is for Jeff’s Harper’s article on how US evangelicals contributed to the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda.
He beat out Maureen Dowd of The New York Times and Joshua Kors of The Nation. Continue Reading →
Stephen Prothero measures the distance Franklin has fallen from the Graham tree. It’s old news by now that Sojourners and other progressive Christian organizations have a gay problem. Hussein Rashid asks Muslims how they will treat LGBT people. What do some Russian women see in Vladimir Putin? Paul the Apostle, reports the Telegraph (via disinfo.com). With a cue from Rob Bell, Chris Armstrong constructs a Handbook to Hell. The When I Return Project: What will you do when you return to a liberated Palestine? Anthea Butler on Glenn Beck’s plans to host a Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem on August 20 this year. An excerpt from Frank Schaeffer’s new book, about how “The Right” is waging a war on “all things public.” David Bahati, the author of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays Bill” may soon be that country’s Minister of Ethics. Terry Mattingly begs for a definition of fundamentalist. Continue Reading →
A week after David Kato, a rights activist, was killed in Uganda, President Obama attends the National Prayer Breakfast. More on Kato at the New Yorker. Continue Reading →
At the last minute Friday night, Brenda Namigadde, an activist from Uganda, was granted a reprieve by the UK from deportation. She had already boarded a plane bound for Uganda.
Targeted by the Ugandan paper Rolling Stone as a lesbian, along with one hundred other gay and lesbian activists — one of which, David Kato, was brutally killed last week — Namigadde is in danger should she return to her home country.
For more on Namigadde and the Rolling Stone (not affiliated with the U.S. magazine) article and on Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill and the influence American religious organizations have had on anti-homosexual violence there read here, here, here and here. Continue Reading →
Truth Wins Out takes the time to note contact information for senators and representatives as well as Ugandan officials affiliated with The Family and the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. A vote, according to TWO’s Wayne Bresen is slated for some time after January 18th.
For more, read Warren Throckmorton here. Continue Reading →
The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, also known as the “kill the gays” bill, never went away. We were just supposed to think it did. A debate of the bill is set to begin before Uganda’s parliament in the next few months, writes Warren Throckmorton, who last week interviewed the author of the bill, David Bahati. Continue Reading →
Today Bloggingheads.tv has posted a conversation on religion and the media between Jeff Sharlet, founder and contributing editor to The Revealer and author of the forthcoming C Street and Amy Sullivan, contributing writer with Time magazine. The topics that they cover are: the killing of 10 health workers/missionaries in Afghanistan; gay marriage; the “Ground Zero Mosque”; the rise of anti-Islam; the Uganda “kill the gays” bill; Anne Rice’s falling away. The video is 56 minutes long but if you want to pop in on a subject, a key below the frame will tell you when. Continue Reading →