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As it turns out, Spirit has nothing to do with religion. That’s the name of the in-flight magazine for the no-frills entrepreneurs at Southwest Airlines. (Actually, there are several magazines called Spirit, but that’s another issue.)
There’s something vertigo-inducing about Bono’s editing an issue on Africa for Vanity Fair. The visual conflicts abound: Alongside Bono’s Guest Editor’s Letter about how many African children die from preventable diseases, a nude threesome promotes a Dolce & Gabbana purse; at the end of an editorial spread about 20 innovative covers shot by Annie Leibovitz, Dolce & Gabbana returns, using a piece of beefcake in a thong to promote a cologne. This is like reading an article in Playboy that condemns female genital mutilation.
After Christianity Today published a lengthy Q&A with Evan Almighty director Tom Shadyac, there was no excuse for those writing about the movie studio’s attempt to appeal to religious audiences to exclude the fact that Shadyac is in fact a self-described “Jesus freak.”
I tend to be rather harsh when it comes to judging the religion coverage in my local newspaper, which is the Baltimore Sun.
My husband is a huge Judd Apatow fan, which means we saw the crassly-named film Knocked Up on the night it came out. The film is not religious, save a few mentions of the protagonist’s Judaism. But coverage of the film has touched quite a bit on religious themes. Knocked Up is a comedy about how a man grows up after he impregnates a beautiful woman during a one-night-stand. Without giving anything away, I think it’s okay for me to share with you that the female in question delivers the baby rather than have an abortion.
Horror of all horrors, Hollywood is seeking to make more movies that appeal to Christians, and it might even try to market the films to those audiences. The latest is yet another sequel from Hollywood that has Steve Carell of The Office playing a political guy who quits his career so that he can build an ark (like Noah).
In the May 28 issue of The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead writes a brief piece in the spirit of Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic,” in which the theme of a social gathering feels at odds with the upscale surroundings. Here the gathering’s theme is spiritual enlightenment, featuring the actress and recently published author Ellen Burstyn (Lessons in Becoming Myself) and Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love).
Reporter Jennifer Lebovich had a very interesting article in Sunday’s Miami Herald. She looked at the popularity of online confession websites where people anonymously post their sins or read about the sins of others. She looks at I’ve Screwed Up, GroupHug, My Secret, Daily Confession and the now-inactive Not Proud. Sexual sins are the most frequently confessed, with theft, lying and alcohol abuse following, Lebovich reports.
Singer Sheryl Crow has been in the news recently for her confrontation with Karl Rove and her thoughts that we all need to use less toilet paper. But it was a local story out of St. Louis that caught my attention. Religion reporter Tim Townsend writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about a trip the singer was making to St. Louis to raise money for a Catholic hospital that helps children with cancer.
