, , , , , , , , , ,

The Economist on the resurgence of religion

, , , , , , , , , ,

If there is one edition of The Economist you should pick up off the newsstand, it is this week’s because of its special report on the state of religion in the world.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , ,

We're not all secularists now

, , , ,

When I interned at The New Republic, an editor there told me something about Andrew Sullivan that I have been turning over in my mind ever since. Sullivan doesn’t care about Christianity, he said. He does care about Catholicism, but only because he grew up in the faith. For years, I failed to grasp what this editor meant. But after reading Sullivan’s panegyric on behalf of Barack Obama and reflecting on it, now I do. Sullivan is a secularist. For all of his love of Catholic rituals, he rejects and, in a few instances, disdains its morality and theology, not to mention its authority.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

The church of media coverage

, , ,

I know we always claim we’re going to stop talking about Pat Robertson but he keeps making it difficult. We just don’t know how to quit you, Pat! Whatever his other merits, the televangelist has an amazing ability to make news. Such as today when he gave Rudy Guiliani his endorsement for president. Even more newsworthy, Guiliani took the endorsement! Here’s how The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza wrote it up:


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

Here they stand, er, leave

, , ,

Man, the hits keep on coming. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to leave the Episcopal Church and realign with an Anglican province in another yet-to-be-determined country. Ann Rodgers, who writes religion news for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and is a board member of the Religion Newswriters Association, has been covering the story. Apparently Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori warned the diocese that she would remove Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan (pictured) from office if the diocese voted to leave. Rodgers went to the annual convention where laypeople and clergy voted by very large margins to leave:


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

Scientology-embracing pastors craziness

, , ,

We’ve received so many of your notes regarding this bizarre story that we just had to address it. Maybe it’s because so many people check CNN.com so frequently. The story, headlined “Some Christian pastors embrace Scientology,” is fairly shallow and shabby in its lack of proper definitions.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , ,

Mourning Columbine, yet again

, , , ,

There are very few news stories that have affected me as deeply as the massacre at Columbine High School. Obviously, Sept. 11 hit the whole country. It still stands as an event that I cannot even comprehend. But for me as someone who lived on that side of Denver for a decade, Columbine remains a kind of small-scale, very personal, horror that stands alone.


Please respect our Commenting Policy