BeliefWatch: Lisa Miller – Page 3

St James Church Secedes from the Episcopal Church

In 2004 the members of St. James Church in tony Newport Beach, Calif., voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the United States. Like dozens of other conservative Episcopal churches at the time, St. James found the theology of its denomination insufficiently orthodox (and the consecration of a gay Episcopal prelate unbiblical). So it, and others, sought—and found—protection among […]

St James Church Secedes from the Episcopal Church Read More

Eli’s Coming – Denzel Takes on the Good Book

In the post-apocalyptic world of The Book of Eli, the most precious things on earth are a trial-size bottle of shampoo; a cache of hand wipes, individually wrapped; and the last existing copy of the King James Bible. Denzel Washington, cast as the cowboy-monk Eli, is on a mission from God. He has to carry that Bible through a landscape

Eli’s Coming – Denzel Takes on the Good Book Read More

House of Worship: Finding Spirituality at Home

Seven percent of Americans say they “attend religious services in someone’s home.” This surprising little fact was buried in a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which showed that Americans are as loosey-goosey in their religious practices as many have long suspected. About a quarter of Americans, according to Pew, believe in astrology. And liberals

House of Worship: Finding Spirituality at Home Read More

An American Original: Oral Roberts

The YouTube video is almost too corny to believe. The year is 1955. A young boy, about 6 and afflicted with polio, is sitting on Oral Roberts’s lap. With praise and prayer, the preacher touches the boy all over his legs, ankles and feet, begging the Lord to restore movement to the limp and paralyzed limbs. “Oh, Jesus,” he says,

An American Original: Oral Roberts Read More

Rick Warren Finally Opposes Uganda Anti-Homosexual Law

Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who drew fire last January when he gave the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, is to be lauded for his fortitude. In a videotaped statement released last week, Warren condemned proposed legislation in Uganda that would increase penalties for homosexual behavior. (Earlier versions included the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. Now homosexuality—and advocating for

Rick Warren Finally Opposes Uganda Anti-Homosexual Law Read More

Heaven on Film – the Lovely Bones

Heaven, according to polls, is a place nearly everyone wants to go to, so why don’t movies ever remotely capture that yearning? We all carry inchoate visions of heaven around in our heads, but we don’t realize how bruising another’s interpretation can be until we see it in celluloid. The most recent attempt—the heaven in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones—looks

Heaven on Film – the Lovely Bones Read More

Who is Jewish?

Were I to submit my cells to DNA tests, results would doubtless show that —barring any surprises—I am a Jew. I have four Jewish grandparents. Genetically speaking, I share a common ancestry with most Jews, no matter where they live, what they look like, or how they practice. Thanks to generations of insularity and historically low rates of intermarriage, Ashkenazi

Who is Jewish? Read More

Health Care: Abortion Is Not the Only Moral Issue

We suffer, this week, from a moral myopia. Thanks to the passage in Congress of a health-reform bill, abortion is in the news again, but with the same old warriors brandishing their same old spears. Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling talk about how the current version of the health-care bill “risks the well-being of millions of women for generations to

Health Care: Abortion Is Not the Only Moral Issue Read More

Hasan was both a Fundamentalist and a Terrorist

We are giving ourselves shallow and untenable choices. Either Islam is a religion that condones violence. Or Islam is a religion of peace. Either Maj. Nidal Hasan, who opened fire at the Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, last week, killing 12 people, is a victim of extreme posttraumatic stress disorder. Or he is a terrorist, operating under orders from

Hasan was both a Fundamentalist and a Terrorist Read More

The Fight over Abstinence at Harvard

At Harvard, it’s sounding a lot like the ’70s again. Thanks to the provocations of True Love Revolution, the university’s three-year-old pro-abstinence club, brainy women are defending their right to have sex with whomever they want, whenever and however they want. “To say that a consensual sexual act is degrading to you is the complete opposite of feminism,” insisted Silpa

The Fight over Abstinence at Harvard Read More