Monthly Archives: September 2008

Apocalypse at 8 p.m.

I knew I liked “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” but it wasn't until I read Ginia Bellafante's New York Times piece that I understood why. The Fox drama makes another run at the Terminator franchise that debuted in—when else?—1984. In … Continue reading

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Obama's New Message for a Faith Tour

By Brooke-Sidney Gavins Barack Obama's camp recently told Christianity Today that it is beginning a new faith tour called “Barack Obama: Faith, Family and Values Tour.” This time around the campaign has enlisted evangelical surrogates such as author Donald Miller … Continue reading

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Unmasking the Intention Behind the "Unmasking" of Obama

By Nicky Loomis In last Sunday's New York Times, op/ed writer Nicholas Kristof said the accusations that Barack Obama is a Muslim aren't so much religious slander as they are an attempt to “Otherize” the Democratic candidate.  Writing from “a … Continue reading

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Being Religulous

by Jennifer Hahn Bill Maher is thanking God for Sarah Palin. His new film “Religulous” – which skewers Western religious traditions as at best laughable, at worst apocalyptic, and never deserving of a place in politics – is set to … Continue reading

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Latino Evangelicals for McCain/Palin

by B. Adriana Venegas-Chavez Now that Hillary Rodham Clinton has dropped out of the presidential race, Republican nominee John McCain is in a good position to secure a significant portion of the coveted Latino voting bloc. Most of Clinton's liberal … Continue reading

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Small Screen/Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion

On September 11-12, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion will hold a two-day conference on television and lived religion. Participants will examine how spirituality, ethics and religion are embedded, embodied, and emplotted in series such as The O.C., House, … Continue reading

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Live From LA: Good/God & Evil (I)

The religious and ethical ramifications of 9/11 are evident in multiple cultural sites, not least of all broadcast television. In recent years, a surprising number of popular dramatic series have grappled with questions of ultimate meaning, including the nexus of … Continue reading

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Palin and the Pentecostal Surge

By Tara GrahamRepublican presidential nominee John McCain is a long-time Episcopalian who now claims to be Baptist, despite having never been baptized in a Baptist church. This, in addition to McCain's reference to certain leaders of the Christian-right as “agents … Continue reading

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Count Down

Count Down Rodney Stark likes to throw curve balls, and his new book What Americans Really Believe continues the trend. In this new outing, Starke takes on Robert Wuthnow, the pre-eminent sociologist of religion, and other prominent scholars who, by his lights, … Continue reading

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