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OK, it’s old news already that Keith Richards plays guitar on the album My Soul Is a Witness. Frank Lockwood of the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote the most playful story about the skeletal rock star’s gospel turn:
The latest issue of Newsweek has a story on the ordination of females. Writers Holly Rossi and Lilit Marcus, who I believe are bloggers at the excellent Beliefnet, wrote the story for the mainstream publication. They ask what the election of Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the head of the Episcopal Church means for women seeking a similar path. If they were blogging, the bias of the piece would be just fine. But I’m not sure if they quite have the impartiality necessary for a mainstream news magazine. Let’s see what we think about their tone:
So the Los Angeles Times has a great idea for a poll, and interviews 1,321 adults about whether religious views would affect their votes in the presidential election. And this is very interesting right now because Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and making a bid for the presidency. So what did the Times find?
Did a Democratic version of Mike Gerson start working for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.? I ask the question because his speech earlier this week at the Call to Renewal conference is about the best attempt to articulate the struggling movement known as the “religious left.” Not that it was that impressive. It’s about time a Democrat came up with something beyond the talking points on religion and its involvement in the public square.
Back in the late 1990s, a close friend — a mentor, even — died of cancer. Through the years I had learned that he loved music but didn’t know very much about music. So I kept giving him music.
Should the public know and understand the belief system of the world’s most despicable terrorist? Aren’t some ideas just too disturbing for academic study or general dissemination?
My family’s roots are in East Texas and I love old stories about small towns in the great Piney Woods region. One of my favorites concerns a radio announcer in Huntsville, back in the era when stations used to play sermons on the air during the church hours on Sunday morning and evening. The sermons were so old that they were on records instead of tapes.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., does not seem to be running for president in 2008. That doesn’t mean he will not do so, just that he is not laying the necessary framework to make a run at the Democratic nomination. He’s certainly soaking up the praise and good favor of his colleagues as major media outlets continue the drumbeat promoting the nation’s only African American senator.
Like many Americans, I became extremely curious about Islam and its adherents in recent years. I joined a local study group to read the Quran and learn about Islam and have read many books on Islamic teachings. But even though I’m pretty sure I know a bit more than the average American, I’m not sure how much I really understand about this religion.
