entertainment & pop culture
Salem witch trials get a second look
By Tracy Gordon — November 8, 2011
SALEM, Mass. (RNS) For centuries, scholars have wondered how a farming village in 1692 could have become so hysterically anxious that magistrates would order 20 executions for crimes of witchcraft. Now a new documentary film about the infamous Salem Witch Trials is stirring fresh debate by heaping blame on the local minister, the Rev. Samuel […]
Friday Godbytes
By Jack Jenkins — November 5, 2011
Some stories you might have missed over the past couple of weeks: A Tibetan nun died today after self-immolating in the Sichuan province of China, reports AFP. A group of Christians in Tennessee are trying to start a new movement: Occupy the Altar. No word yet on whether or not you can actually fit a […]
Thursday Godbytes
By Jack Jenkins — November 4, 2011
G uess what? The New York Times says cool people go to church! I knew I was cool, right guys? Maybe we can hang out after church and go to the movies or play Dungeons and Dragons or someth-hey, where’s everybody going? Speaking of cool churchiness, CNN notes that some folks just ditch the whole […]
Sheen, Estevez find ‘The Way’ to make a non-preachy religious film
By Tiffany McCallen — October 7, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) How does a modern filmmaker with qualms about religion make a movie about the power of an ancient Christian pilgrimage? That’s the dilemma that actor/director Emilio Estevez faced when making `The Way,’ a new film that opens Friday (Oct. 7) starring his own father, actor Martin Sheen. Estevez opted to focus on the […]
How George Harrison changed the way we believe
By Tiffany McCallen — October 7, 2011
(RNS) As the lead guitarist of the world’s biggest rock band and a prolific song writer, the Beatles’ George Harrison has secured his place in pop culture history. But his greatest legacy may be the way his decades-long spiritual quest shaped the ways the West looks at God, gurus and life. Harrison, who died of […]
Monday Godbytes
By Jack Jenkins — October 4, 2011
The Washington Post has a photo series covering the Blessing of the Animals, an annual event that occured this pst weekend. This is religion at its adorable-est, folks. Tom Beaudoin over at the Catholic-centered America Magazine blog offers a faith-based report on the Occupy Wall Street protests (apparently religious rituals and protests have a lot […]
New Orleans pastor on restaurant quest can’t live by bread alone
By Tracy Gordon — September 30, 2011
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Minister Ray Cannata’s mission is almost complete. Four years ago he set out to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans. By mid-September, he’d already checked 719 eateries off his list and only had 10 meals to go before the ceremonial conclusion of his quest on Oct. 21, when he’ll have dined […]
Don’t tell Beyonce
By Kevin Eckstrom — September 13, 2011
That sound you hear if Beyonce, losing her breakfast. Jon Skelley, the music minister at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., probably thought this was a good idea. But that line between inspiration and execution is a very thin one. H/t: Clayton McCleskey.
Should Mel Gibson really be making a movie about Jews?
By Tracy Gordon — September 12, 2011
(RNS) After combating claims of anti-Semitism for years, actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson is slated to bring the story of Judah Maccabee, the Jewish military hero whose decisive victory was the inspiration for Hanukkah, to the big screen. News that Gibson is producing the film has drawn the predictable ire of Jewish leaders who criticized […]
Army agrees to host concert for atheists on N.C. base
By Tracy Gordon — August 6, 2011
(RNS) A group of military atheists have won the backing of U.S. Army officials to hold a “Rock Beyond Belief” concert for nonbelievers at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg next year. The victory came after several church-state separation watchdog groups complained last month to the Secretary of the Army that a Christian-themed concert held at the […]
At Church of Beethoven, music is the message
By Tracy Gordon — August 4, 2011
(RNS) “Music,” Ludwig van Beethoven said, “is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” Transcending dogma, creed, culture and even language, music has the power to elevate the soul as well as the mind. It’s the source of a type of faith as often discovered outside traditional organized religion as within it. While […]
Zondervan brings Rob Bell to the app world
By Tracy Gordon — August 1, 2011
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) A film series founded by megachurch pastor and author Rob Bell is finding new life as a smartphone app. The series, called NOOMA, has sold more than 2 million copies, and is now available for Apple and Android platforms. “We feel like apps are the future of how people are going […]
HBO film follows Muslim children competing to memorize the Quran
By Jack Jenkins — July 27, 2011
(RNS) A new documentary follows three Muslim children as they travel to Egypt to compete in a tournament that requires young contestants to recite whole passages of the Quran, Islam’s 600-page holy book, from memory. Each year during Ramadan — a Muslim holy month when believers fast, pray and read from the Quran — 100 […]
Director steps out on a ledge with atheist film
By Tracy Gordon — July 14, 2011
(RNS) In the new film “The Ledge,” a man perches high above the city, ready to jump to save the woman he loves. As storylines go, perhaps it’s not the most original. But what is unusual about this film, said writer/director Matthew Chapman, is that its hero is an atheist, set aloft to illustrate two […]
The racy Mormon sex scandal behind `Tabloid’
By Tracy Gordon — July 12, 2011
(RNS) Not even an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker like Errol Morris is immune from the allure of a salacious sex scandal. Morris (“The Fog of War”) was reading his newspaper in 2008 and came across an Associated Press story about an American woman who had her pit bull cloned in South Korea. The last paragraph of […]
