At this point, there doesn’t seem to be much about Mitt Romney’s Mormon background that hasn’t been exhaustively picked over by the media. The same is true to a lesser extent of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann; the two former Republican front-runners sparked controversy late in the summer for their alleged links to Dominionism, an extreme Christian theological movement.  Bachmann was profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker, while Perrycontinues to be embroiled in the commotion over evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress’ claims that Mormonism... Read more

In one of my recent hip-hop theology class sessions we held a passionate and engaging discussion on Black Liberation Theology and the construction of God, Power, Sacrifice, Revolution and misrepresentation. I appreciated the involvement and engagement with such sensitive matters. We began the work of deconstructing how God gets appropriated with a particular group within a societal hierarchy and thereby render those on the underside helpless and hopeless. I realized that so many people are conditioned by oppressive infrastructures that exist that... Read more

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacreranks as holy iconography for most horror nerds, myself included. Have you seen it? If not, it may be because it would be the very last thing you would want to watch, or admit to watching. You are probably picturing an exploitative bloodbath. A disturbing and sick (in the old usage of the term) combination of teenage pulchritude and screaming logging equipment turned weapon of mass destruction. I bet you are imagining blood spattered everywhere to the... Read more

Despite the increased attention to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion, a new survey released Thursday shows that a majority of Americans cannot identify the former Massachusetts governor’s religion. The survey by Washington, D.C.-based Public Religion Research Institute found that only four-in-10 Americans know that Romney is Mormon. The figure has not changed since July, when the research and polling organization last conducted a survey on Americans’ knowledge of the candidate’s religion. That lack of change contrasts with the increasingly heated... Read more

A central concern for those in the Occupy movement — that the economic system in the U.S. is rigged in favor of the well-off — has been corroborated by a major new survey of developed nations. When it comes to social justice — defined here as the ability each individual has to participate in the market society, regardless of their social status — the United States ranks near the bottom of 31 developed countries, the Thursday report from Bertelsmann Foundation found. It’s... Read more

Bishop Harry Jackson is a former college middle linebacker who can still hit hard. Jackson is not shy about stirring up controversy, but he stops short when it comes to preaching about greed. The Maryland bishop said he encourages his congregation to get through the Great Recession by saving and sharing. But he doesn’t want to alienate well-off members by talking about what’s behind the nation’s economic woes.“I’ve got to watch it,” said Jackson, pastor at Hope Christian Church in... Read more

The Religious Communication Association selected Dr. Andre E. Johnson’s article “The Prophetic Persona of James Cone and the Rhetorical Theology of Black Theology,” for its Religious Communication Article Award. According to the announcement letter, the selection committee felt that Dr. Johnson’s work “represented a superior level of scholarship on the interplay of rhetorical and theological discourse.” Dr. Johnson will receive the award at the Association’s convention in New Orleans later this year. Dr. Johnson currently serves as the Dr. James L. Netters Assistant... Read more

Cultural Connections: The African Roots of the African American Church The impact of Africans on world civilizations is well documented. Africans have created and contributed to many aspects of culture, from commerce to cuisine. Religion has been at the center of these African contributions.  Therefore, it is not surprising that Africans have played an important role in the development of both ancient and contemporary Christianity. In the early centuries of Christianity, Africans, in countries such as Egypt and Ethiopia, shaped... Read more

It’s not rare to encounter people who claim that Paul “invented” Christianity. The basic idea is that Jesus taught a pure and ethical form of Judaism that focused on God and gracious living, while Paul developed a religion that worshiped Jesus rather than God. Though this idea literally makes no sense historically, it’s gotten a lot of run. Even the occasional serious academic book “blames” Paul for perverting Jesus’ message in inventing Christianity. One easily appreciates the appeal of this... Read more

Many people who call themselves Progressive Christians must have been surprised by this comment in a recent article by Fred Schmidt: "Progressive" Christians have yet to articulate in theological categories what they believe in, so it is hard to identify what they believe out—except by resorting to political assumptions. . . . If all that Progressive Christianity has going for it is that it is politically progressive, then there is really no reason to wrap churchy language around it. Many of us have been... Read more