2013-01-30T16:53:37-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:53 pm   By

People are supposed to meditate in church, but the epiphany that rocked filmmaker Rik Swartzwelder two years ago was different. It started when he visited several churches in Charlotte, N.C., while visiting family. In service after service he heard preachers telling people it was their “Christian duty” to rush out and buy a ticket for “The Passion of the Christ.” There were brochures for Mel Gibson’s bloody epic in the bulletins, posters in sanctuary lobbies and preview clips for the... Read more

2013-01-30T16:53:49-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:53 pm   By

Now that Ash Wednesday has passed, the world’s 1 billion or more Roman Catholics have entered the season of Lent. It’s time for a short test. During this holy season of penitence and reflection, America’s 62 million Catholics are required to: (a) Go to confession. (b) Abstain from meat and fast by eating only one full meal on Fridays. (c) Pray and meditate on biblical accounts of the suffering and death of Jesus, including attending weekly Stations of the Cross rites or an... Read more

2013-01-30T16:54:00-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:54 pm   By

Soon after the smashing opening weekend of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the Rev. Bob Beltz had a vision of what his Hollywood colleagues might be doing someday just before his funeral. “They could end up holding the first screening of ‘The Last Battle’ just before my funeral service. That’s about how long it may take us to do the whole series,” quipped the 55-year-old Presbyterian pastor, referring to the seventh and final Narnia... Read more

2013-01-30T16:54:11-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:54 pm   By

The murder of filmmaker Michael Moore left Hollywood shaken and outraged. A fundamentalist Baptist cut the liberal icon’s throat in broad daylight on a New York City street after the release of “Submission,” his movie with actress Susan Sarandon that attacked the Religious Right for oppressing women. As a final symbolic act the killer used his knife to pin an anti-abortion tract to Moore’s chest, with an explicit warning that Sarandon was next. All of that is fiction, of course.... Read more

2013-01-30T16:54:21-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:54 pm   By

One of the demonstrators was a small child with a placard that said, “Whoever insults the prophet kill him.” Another marcher wore a suicide bomber costume. Other signs in London said: “Behead those who insult Islam,” “Europeans take a lesson from 9/11” and “Prepare for the REAL Holocaust.” The organizer of the Feb. 3 event told the BBC that he looked forward to the day when “the black flag of Islam will be flying over Downing Street.” But what stunned... Read more

2013-01-30T16:54:37-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:54 pm   By

It was a room full of religious believers — Republicans and Democrats — who were used to praying together and even hearing guest speakers quote the scriptures. Bono looked around, studying the faces through his blue rock-star sunglasses. Reaching out to the sick and the suffering in Third World nations is not a matter of charity, he said. It is a matter of justice. U2’s charismatic lead singer kept returning to this theme. Forgiving Third World debt is a matter... Read more

2013-01-30T16:54:51-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:54 pm   By

It’s a law. Whenever the Vatican issues a papal encyclical, journalists have to figure out what the pope was trying to say. To do this, we contact scholars, politicos and clergy for background information and edgy quotes. Thus, a reporter recently called Father Richard John Neuhaus of the journal First Things to discuss Pope Benedict XVI’s “Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).” During this interview, Neuhaus referred to the pope as the “bishop of Rome.” The reporter then said, “That... Read more

2013-01-30T16:55:01-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:55 pm   By

The Catholic Diocese of Amarillo is not the kind of place that makes national news very often. Yet the bishop of the Texas high plains did precisely that in 1981 when he took an idealistic — some said foolhardy — stand to defend the sanctity of life. Bishop Leroy Matthiesen urged workers at the nearby Pantex plant to walk away from their jobs assembling nuclear weapons. Peace activists cheered, while big-league journalists rushed to cover the story. A quarter of... Read more

2013-01-30T16:55:17-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:55 pm   By

It has been a few weeks since the kids ripped off the Christmas wrappings and, after plugging in a few cables, soared off into the private universes inside their new video games. Since then, most of them have been slaying armies of evil aliens, orcs, zombies or Nazis. Then again, they may — with pounding pulses and razor-sharp reflexes — have slaughtered innocent bystanders, bedded prostitutes, sold hard drugs to children and used stolen vehicles to flatten cops. “Gamer” Jeff... Read more

2013-01-30T17:02:05-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 5:02 pm   By

Once again, inquiring media minds wanted to know: Does the Rev. Pat Robertson’s telephone actually have a speed-dial button for the angel of death? The evangelical alpha male keeps making news with grim pronouncements about life, death and God’s will. In the past, he has discussed the steering mechanisms of hurricanes and the aging hearts of liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justices. This past summer he said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Now, of... Read more

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