High above California, between campaign stops last week, presidential candidate Mitt Romney submitted to what he jokingly called “35 minutes of torture.” In a wide-ranging talk with NEWSWEEK’S Jonathan Darman and Lisa Miller, Romney touched on his family, his religion, his management style
‘We’ve Got to Fix Ourselves’ Read More »
Some stories are best told straight. On Sept. 8, Kathy Griffin, a bawdy, foulmouthed comedian, accepted an Emmy Award for her reality show, “My Life on the D-List,” and in her acceptance speech she explained that while other actors might thank Jesus for such an honor, she wouldn’t consider it. “Suck it, Jesus,” she exuberantly
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Now two things devour my life,” wrote the poet William Butler Yeats. “The things that most of all I hate:/Fasting and prayers.” This week, the world’s billion Muslims and 12 million Jews will be fasting and praying in honor of Ramadan and Yom Kippur. Fasting is common to nearly every major religion; mystics fast to
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A decade ago, book publishers discovered a fertile market in the growing number of liberal-minded Jews interested in Buddhist meditation
Some experiences just inspire people to pick up a pen. Convinced that what they saw, felt or heard was profound and unique, these writers are moved to share. Jury duty is one such experience. Parenthood is another. Religious conversion, or an intense spiritual awakening, is a third. Publishers are increasingly giving those in the last
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No group is more emphatically and publicly opposed to the practice of polygamy than the Latter-day Saints. The topic is, however, irresistible and perennial. While the Mormon Church banned plural marriage more than 100 years ago and promises excommunication to those who practice it, its spokespeople find themselves having to explain polygamy’s legacy over and
Patrick Henry College, in Purcellville, Va., is the kind of place that would make most coastal liberals run screaming. A tiny college with about 500 students, its stated goal is to “prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture.” Its dorms are filled mostly with kids who have been
It would seem at first blush to be hubristic to write yet another biography of Billy Graham, especially one that focuses on his relationships with American presidents. At 88, Graham is, and has been for more than five decades, one of the most celebrated men in history, the subject of dozens of biographies and one
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Moshe Milstein, a religious Jew who is incarcerated at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., wants his Maimonides back. Officials at the Otisville prison recently removed hundreds of books from the chapel library there
BeliefWatch: Banned? Read More »
Have you finished reading? What do you think? Is Harry Potter a Christian story after all? Harry has made news, ever since his arrival on the scene in 1998, for provoking the ire of some right-wing Christians who believe his magical powers and wizardly aspirations
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