Louis Zamperini: A life transformed by … Billy Graham?

July 4, 2014 by

Louis Zamperini had an amazing, amazing life. Actually, he had two of them since — pardon my French — he was a born-again Christian. You can get the amazing details of his first life in all of obituaries that are running in major news publications. However, if you want to know much about how this [Read More…]

Filed Under: Books, Evangelicals, Film, People, Religion, World, Worship Tagged With: , , ,

Memory eternal: The life and quiet ministry of ‘Ann B.’

June 2, 2014 by

One of the complicated subjects that religion-beat professionals talk about behind the scenes, if they are themselves religious believers, is how to pick out a safe congregation to join in the city that they are covering. The goal is to find a good one, but not one that has a history of making news. During [Read More…]

Filed Under: Anglicanism, Evangelicals, Film, First Person, Humor, People, Pop Culture, Radio & TV Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

WPost: Avoiding Maya Angelou’s soul, if at all possible

May 30, 2014 by

In the world of political, cultural and social studies theory there is a term — “civil religion” — that scholars have been arguing about for decades. You can talk about Rousseau and you can dig into Tocqueville and travel on to Martin Marty, but sooner or later you end up with the 1967 Robert Bellah [Read More…]

Filed Under: Academia, Books, Film, Journalism, Music, People, Race, Radio & TV Tagged With: , , ,

Near-death experiences: Is ‘Heaven Is For Real’ for real?

May 27, 2014 by

MICHAEL-ANN ASKS: How well do you think [the current “Heaven Is For Real” movie] addresses communicating out-of-body spiritual experiences? AND ART ASKS: [Regarding the “countless books” on near-death experiences such as “Heaven Is For Real”]: Is there any legitimate connection between these and Christian views of the next life? THE RELIGION GUY ANSWERS: Since maybe [Read More…]

Filed Under: Catholicism, Evangelicals, Film, People, Pop Culture, Religion, Science Tagged With: , ,

Short 30 for 30 slam dunk that gets the faith angle just right

May 25, 2014 by

You have to be a pretty intense hoops fan to remember many of the details of the career of Shawn Bradley. Other than, of course, you know what. Take a look at the YouTube at the top of this post some of the details will come back to you. Or even click here for a [Read More…]

Filed Under: Film, Mormons, People, Radio & TV, Religion, Sports, Worship Tagged With: , , ,

Shocking news! T.D. Jakes doubts something!

April 19, 2014 by

“Replate 1A.” That was a favorite dry reaction at my old newspaper whenever someone announced something obvious, as if were front-page news. That’s what I said when the Hollywood Reporter labeled T.D. Jakes as “a man of God who admits he has wrestled with doubt.” Clearly, the reporter hasn’t read Pope Francis or the Dalai [Read More…]

Filed Under: Ethics, Evangelicals, Film, gays, Interviews, Journalism, Marriage & family, Radio & TV, Religion, Same-sex marriage, Social Issues, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

New York critics, heaven and a very busy religion week

April 18, 2014 by

OK, think of all of the stereotypes that you have heard about elite critics in New York City, those powerful mainstream-media scribes who are said to have the power to determine what is good and what is bad at the highest levels of American culture. Do you have that picture in your mind? Now, don’t [Read More…]

Filed Under: Education, Evangelicals, Film, First Person, Judaism, People, Pop Culture Tagged With: , ,

What he said! Yes, Hollywood wants more Christian $$$$

April 15, 2014 by

In this morning’s email newsletter from the folks at Religion News Service, editor Kevin Eckstrom raised his eyebrow high (no, honest, you can sense it in the copy) and quipped: Pretty sure we’ve seen about 5,429 versions of this story already. Right. We get it. Hollywood is trying to lure Christian audiences to the cineplex. [Read More…]

Filed Under: Evangelicals, Film, Godbeat, Humor, Pop Culture Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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