By J. Terry Todd

Religion isn't the first subject that springs to mind when you think about the San Diego Comic-Con International, the globe's largest annual pop culture klatsch that just wrapped up its 40th season. What started in 1970 as a modest confab for self-described "nerds," mostly sci-fi and comix fans, has evolved into a sprawling convention covering every aspect of mass media and every genre from anime to 'zines.

Over 150,000 people flooded San Diego's Convention Center for seminars, shopping, and parties, sharing their mutual devotions, dressing up like their heroes and alt personas – vampires, werewolves, zombies, and even old school characters like Yoda and Wonder Woman.   And they came to hang out with the stars.  This year's celebrity roster included, among many others, Will Farrell, Jeff Bridges, Tina Fay, and Angelina Jolie, there to promote her new movie Salt on the flick's opening weekend.  ... read more

Earlier this month, CNN fired Octavia Nasr, its senior editor on Middle Eastern affairs, for tweeting about the death of Lebanese cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Nasr's tweet said she was "sad" to hear of the cleric's passing and that he was "one of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot.."

According to an internal memo, Nasr's "credibility" had been "compromised."

Fadlallah was a complex and controversial figure, who gained notoriety in the U.S. in 1980s because of his alleged ties to the then -nascent militant group Hezbollah. As a Grand Ayatollah, he was Lebanon's highest ranking Shiite cleric, on par with Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameini. Yet, he's considered more progressive, especially on issues regarding women's rights. ... read more

Even as Californians await a decision on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the initiative that limits marriage to unions between men and women, a new survey reports that only 1 in 5 residents believe the ballot measure was "good for the state."

But an even more important, if not surprising, finding is the widespread acceptance of gay identity and issues among California Christians. Even churchgoers who don't support gay marriage favor full acceptance of gays in the workplace and in the military, and some also acknowledge their right to adopt and to have civil unions. (You can find the numbers here) Bottom line: the old narrative "religion discriminates against gays" needs to be nuanced. ... read more

Christopher Hitchens is in treatment for esophageal cancer, and the prognosis is grim. If Hitchens were anyone other than Hitchens, this sad news would already be a footnote in last week's news cycle. But, since he is an outspoken atheist and since the typical American response to others' suffering is to pray for them, a public debate has popped up.

Should one pray for an atheist?

The American press is in remarkable agreement that it is appropriate to pray for an atheist. Even an atheist who has argued that intercessory prayer is not only "in bad taste" but also "immoral." ... read more

By Richard Flory

The recent retirement, then non-retirement, of famed Crystal Cathedral and "possibility thinking" pastor Robert Schuller, was reported over the past weekend, first in the Orange County Register, and picked up by the AP. The story was then denied by Schuller's daughter and now "sole lead pastor," Sheila Schuller Coleman, in an L.A. Times article, although it took a day for the AP and the Register to catch up. (For more on the coverage of this story click here.) The confusion over who is really in charge at the Crystal Cathedral is an issue that many similar churches are likely to face in the coming years as the pastors who built these large, complex organizations reach retirement age and/or move on to their ultimate reward. How can reporters cut through the mystification to explain what is actually happening? A quick review of recent history is a good start. ... read more

by Dalia Hashad

The world's greatest sporting event will soon come to a close.  Long after the incessant honking of vuvuzelas cease, this World Cup will be remembered for its unique character.  Among the bright spots is that, for the first time, it has been staged on African soil in a country struggling to release itself from the devastating legacy of apartheid.  In addition, the U.S. team's energizing performance helped spark national enthusiasm for the long-neglected world pastime and brought us a bit more in step with the rest of the globe.  Unavoidably, the games had its lows.  In videos for all to replay, there are the now-famous mistakes and missed calls by referees.  And then there is "Les Bleus" France's national team, winners of the 1998 World Cup, the 2000 European Championship, and runners up of the 2006 World Cup. The team self-imploded and, humiliated, booked an early flight back home.   ... read more

by Brie Loskota

The only thing Americans seem to like more than the culture war is trying to make money off the culture war. As soon as the "Jesus fish" appeared on the back of a minivan, another enterprising group started selling the "The Darwin fish" (it has feet). "The Truth fish" ate "The Darwin fish", "The Gefilte fish" arrived on the scene, and even people who liked the band Phish jumped in. A small but vocal segment of our country decided to play out centuries old debates about religion, identity, ultimate truth, and the meaning of life by sticking cheap metallic decals on the back of their cars. Talk about merging the sacred and the profane.

Paul Vitello writes about the next evolution of this phenomenon in a New York Times story about the proliferation of iPhone applications dedicated to getting the upper hand in the never-ending argument between Christians and atheists. Savvy application developers are arming atheists with the ability to quickly look up contradictory and ridiculous verses in the Bible and flummox the most knowledgeable Christian believer. ... read more

On Friday, the New York Times added another piece to the puzzling history of the Vatican's response to the crisis of clergy sexual abuse. Reporters Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger plumbed church documents and interviewed church leaders to ascertain how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, deployed church policy to address scandals that, by the 1990s, were erupting globally.

Despite recent Vatican efforts to paint the current pope as a responsive leader seeking to address the problem, the reporters draw a picture of a bureaucrat more concerned with protecting his institution than with preventing abuse and disciplining abusers. ... read more

Having spent the last three years tripping through the history of the psychedelic sixties, I couldn't help but laugh at the following paragraph in a recent front-page story in the New York Times:

Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conduced by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at John Hopkins. ... read more

The wait is almost over. On Wednesday, the third movie installment of the Twilight saga, "Eclipse," will light up silver screens and fan faces across the country. The media—tabloid and reputable sources alike—have followed this event with a devotion matching that of the most obsessed Twi-hard. But, as with the other films, most stories focus on the young stars' superbly crafted abdominal muscles, tantalizingly disheveled hair or rumored real-life hookups. While I'm just as likely as the next person to pick up US Weekly to find out what Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are up to behind closed doors, I can't help feeling that journalists have yet to explore what's really driving this popular culture phenomenon. ... read more