Social Issues

Is Superman Returns the next Passion or Da Vinci Code?

We knew Superman Returns contained some pretty heavy religious imagery, the Christian and Jewish type to be specific, but the film is now drawing positive comparisons with Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. On top of that, the film contains some un-Christlike imagery — unless you believe the researchers behind Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code — that has drawn some fascinating speculation from movie reviewers.


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Name of the mainline game is "local option"

In the end, it was the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that made the biggest news on the front lines of the liturgical culture wars this week. However, it should be noted that the most important action taken by the oldline Presbyterians was to adopt precisely the option that the Episcopalians have been using for quite some time now.


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Will political reporters get it?

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.


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Personality poker at General Convention

Brother Mattingly has implored me to keep GetReligion in mind while I am here in Columbus, Ohio, reporting on the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention. My report on Sunday’s election of the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion should appear sometime Monday on Christianity Today‘s website.


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"You may not win the Super Bowl"

This ESPN.com piece on Indianapolis Colts football coach Tony Dungy is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of a writer stepping back from a situation and letting the story’s characters drive the narrative. The article is brutally frank about life, death and the importance of faith in this particular father’s life.


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Goodbye to the White House evangelical

The departure of President Bush’s close adviser and longtime speechwriter Michael Gerson ends an era in which an evangelical Christian had unprecedented access and influnce in shaping American foreign and domestic policy. Thanks to Gerson’s humility, he never came close to receiving the attention from journalists of the likes of Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, but few were as influential.


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