In England in the late 19th century, death was a highly ritualized affair. Wives were expected to wear special dresses — black, conservative, often accessorized with “weeping veils” — for up to four years following the death of their husbands; if you’d lost a sister or brother, six months of mourning garb was the norm. “Full mourning” (lasting for a year and a day after the death), “second mourning” (the nine months after that), and “half mourning” (the three-six months... Read more

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from the LA Times For the next several days, Rhetoric race and Religion will post articles that focus on New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin and the role of religion. Enjoy Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow have been phenomenons who transcended their sports this fall and winter. Each helped reverse stumbling franchises; each has extraordinary leadership skills; each is a model of humility and a person of faith. But that’s about where the similarities end. Lin has shown himself to... Read more

A book that boasts of being “the first of its kind” to document the history of the Methodist Church’s involvement in American politics has been released. Mark Tooley, president of the Institute of Religion and Democracy, wrote Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century as a chronicle of the history of the denomination’s influence on society. A Methodist himself, Tooley first became interested in the topic of Methodism and politics as a college student who was part of his church’s... Read more

For the next several days, Rhetoric race and Religion will post articles that focus on New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin and the role of religion. Enjoy by Sarah Pulliam Bailey Get Religion Linsanity is alive and well tonight as Jeremy Lin gave New York a nice Valentine’s Day present: a last-second three-pointer to nail the Knicks’ win over the Raptors. As journalists are trying to capture Lin’s rise to popularity in the NBA, some might look to Poynter for... Read more

For the next several days, Rhetoric race and Religion will post articles that focus on New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin and the role of religion. Enjoy This morning I asked my sports reporter husband if he knew who Jeremy Lin was. He laughed and responded: “Do you know who Billy Graham is?” Feeling a little silly, I started reading up on the couch-surfing basketball star who is apparently taking the world by storm, or at least the NBA. “Forget... Read more

For the next several days, Rhetoric race and Religion will post articles that focus on New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin and the role of religion. Enjoy New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin’s underdog story and outspoken evangelical faith have some sportswriters dubbing him the “Taiwanese Tebow.” But while Lin and Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow share similar Christian convictions, Lin’s rise to stardom is even more miraculous. Just a few weeks ago, the Harvard University graduate was buried on... Read more

In his column in The Crimson last week, Derek Bekebrede wrote that the Obama administration “has decreed that religion and religious values are no longer welcome in civil society.” Leading a vehemently anti-secular chorus of Republican presidential candidates, Rick Perry promised in a much-parodied television spot to “end Obama’s war on religion” which has supposedly made it impossible for “kids to openly celebrate Christmas and pray in school.” Even the ostensibly sane current Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, is convinced that... Read more

With its focus on biblical values and traditionally low emphasis on profanity, sex, or violence, Christian fiction (CF) has long been popular with a certain readership, mostly white, female, and coming from an evangelical Protestant background. “I’m not sure I’d describe all of our readers as white women of child-bearing years or [suffering from] empty-nest syndrome,” says Harvest House publicist Aaron Dillon. “But our core demographic does seem to be middle-aged mothers, primarily white. We also have a large contingent... Read more

For the past few decades in the US, reproductive health policies have taken up a large proportion of the nation’s political conversation and have since intensified during the run for the Republican presidential nomination. If the debate is not about abortion, it is about the availability of contraception and the morning after pill, issues that have recently gone hand in hand. Admittedly they encapsulate broadly different arguments, including widely different moral issues, but both orientate around the issue of women’s... Read more