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Urban Dictionary defines glurge as “syrupy sweet e-mails that are mass-mailed to unwilling participants” that usually involve “puppies, kitties, children with disabilities, puppies and kitties with disabilities, and Jesus.” Glurge also is a category at Snopes.com.
I teach a seminar titled “Exegete the Culture” at Palm Beach Atlantic University that studies the religious content of secular media as well as how the surrounding media culture affects the church.
Hanna Rosin of The Washington Post wandered onto David Kirkpatrick’s turf during the weekend, attempting to explain those strange new creatures in town who are called evangelicals. Rosin interviews several people, but the anecdotes of one political consultant, Lyric Hassler, provide the central image of the piece.
Back in the 1980s, while working as the religion editor for the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, I interviewed a man who was a chaplain to NASCAR racers and their families. The chaplain was kind, and patient with my astonishment that NASCAR drivers would feel any interest in his services.
Charlotte Observer scribe Ken Garfield recently put out a thoughtful commentary for those in churches — think Anglican — with flexible Lents. The basic idea: Why not give up hypocrisy? This would, of course, be easier said than done. He picks on cultural conservatives, which is totally fair game in light of facts collected by the noted evangelical writer Ronald J. Sider. For example, 6 percent of adults who call themselves born-again Christians tithe and 25 percent of born-again Christians have lived out of wedlock with a member of the opposite sex. And so forth and so on. Nevertheless, I’m curious. Anyone have data on the religious left? Could add to a good story.
At least that’s the formula I would expect. In a PR release on Jan. 18, GQ added to my dread that barrels of snark would be on tap: “Rock music used to be a safe haven for degenerates and rebels — until it found Jesus. Now Christian-rock concerts have become a quiet force in America drawing worship and money and swaying the devoted. GQ correspondent John Jeremiah Sullivan went deep into Creation, the genre’s biggest annual festival, and found that the Lord rocks in mysterious ways.”
First things first. Readers need to know that the three males involved in editorial work here at GetReligion decided that this was the best photo to accompany this post. It was the most modest photo and it was the wackiest one, as well.
Blaine Harden of The Washington Post writes with sympathy for evangelicals who care about the environment — or “creation care,” as one pastor says he calls it because of evangelicals’ purported hang-ups about the word environmentalism.
Gosh, you go on the road for a few days out into slow dial-up territory and you get behind on your daily barrage email and, lo and behold, you miss something truly interesting like this epistle.
