Last week, Rick Warren sent this message to the nearly 500,000 people who follow him on Twitter: “Husbands & wives should satisfy each other’s sexual needs. 1 Cor 7:3.” His Twitter feed lit up with amens and retweets. “Oh gosh,” exclaimed one follower. Evangelical Christians want to talk about sex. And not in the same […]
What the Bible Really Says About Sex
New scholarship on the Good Book’s naughty bits and how it deals with adultery, divorce, and same-sex love. The poem describes two young lovers aching with desire. The obsession is mutual, carnal, complete. The man lingers over his lover’s eyes and hair, on her teeth, lips, temples, neck, and breasts, until he arrives at “the […]
Priority Check
As recently as 2004, when evangelicals were credited with reelecting George W. Bush, sexual mores defined the culture wars. But as the economy has become the political priority for liberals and conservatives alike, traditional culture-war issues—abortion, gay marriage—have been blunted as weapons in the political theater. As recently as 2004, when evangelicals were credited with […]
One Nation Under God
Powerful new rhetoric on the religious right pits Obama and big government against ‘God’s America’—and promises to galvanize Christians in 2012. On Nov. 30, about a dozen moderate Christian leaders gathered for a meeting in Washington, D.C. Their colleagues on the religious right had been delivering a potent new message about God and country, of fear and […]
No Atheists in Foxholes
And other myths of the recession. Every day, the economist Daniel Hungerman looks at the graph that hangs above his desk at the University of Notre Dame. One jagged line goes down and up. This is America’s gross domestic product since 1972. Another jagged line goes up and down. This is the religiosity of Americans […]
Does the BP Oil Spill Herald the Apocalypse?
A growing conversation among Christian fundamentalists asks the question that may have been inevitable: is the oil spill in the gulf a sign of the coming apocalypse? About 60 million white evangelicals live in America, and about one third of them believe that the world will end in their lifetime, according to the Pew Research […]
The Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly on “Heaven”
On April 1st, 2010, Cathal Kelly reviewed “Heaven” for the Toronto Star: “St. Thérèse of Liseux was the sort of heedless optimist the Catholic Church could use about now. “I believe in Hell,” she once said. “But I believe it is empty.” Of course it is, Sister. Haven’t you heard that Heaven is full to […]
Excerpt from “Heaven”
It’s Easter—that most pleasant of springtime holidays—when children stuff themselves with marshmallows and stain their fingers with pastel dyes. In reality, of course, Easter is about something darker and more fantastic. It’s a celebration of the final act of the Passion, in which Jesus rose from his tomb in his body three days after his […]
Library Journal’s Eric Norton on “Heaven”
Miller (religion editor, Newsweek) offers a sample of the myriad views of heaven held by Americans today, as well as surveying the inspiration for those views, from both the Abrahamic traditions and contemporary culture. She casts a wide net for her interview subjects, including Mormons, Lubavitcher Jews, Swedenborgians, and a Catholic lay hermit, along with […]
Kirkus Reviews on “Heaven”
An introduction to what monotheists of all stripes believe about heaven. Newsweek society and religion editor Miller offers an overview that combines elements of journalism, academics and memoir. Her approach provides an intriguing glimpse at what many believe the afterlife holds, though the author’s own discomfort with the idea of heaven occasionally weighs down the […]
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