Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre is opposed to abortion and the rise of what Pope John Paul II has called the “culture of death.” But this does not mean that he backed President Bush. The University of Notre Dame scholar is concerned about health care and fair wages. But this doesn’t mean that he marched into a voting booth and picked Sen. John Kerry. During a year in which religion and politics constantly made headlines, MacIntyre published an essay that frayed nerves... Read more
They are some of America’s most infamous religious statistics and conservatives have been known to quote them with glee. The United Churches of Christ lost 14.8 percent of its members during the 1990s. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was down 11.6 percent. The United Methodist Church fell 6.7 percent and the Episcopal Church another 5.3 percent. But there was nothing earth shattering in the Glenmary Research Center’s 2000 data. The Protestant mainline has been fading for a generation. The Southern Baptist... Read more
In Iowa, some United Methodists want the president and vice president tossed out of their church for “chargeable offenses” against its doctrines on justice and peace. “Our hope is that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will recognize the sinfulness of their actions, sincerely repent for what they have done and move on to change their ways,” say leaders of the liberal TheyMustRepent.com network. “Although we recognize the improbability of that outcome, we believe that with God all things are... Read more
While brainstorming the other day, Phil Vischer thought up an idea for a wacky late-night show that could also deal with faith issues. This show would not feature digital vegetables and Vischer playing a big, red, silly tomato named Bob. It would not be a VeggieTales show produced under the Big Idea brand he created a decade ago. It would sink or swim on its own. This felt exhilarating and terrifying. “That was the whole thing with VeggieTales,” said Vischer.... Read more
NASHVILLE — VeggieTales fans know that strange things happen when the big green digital cucumber launches into one of his infamous “Silly Songs with Larry.” The new “School House Polka” salutes words that sound alike, with the chorus: “Homophones, homophones, where the crews come cruising down the plane. Homophones, homophones, I need my kneaded biscuits plain!” The twist is that Larry keels over on his back and delivers an accordion solo that fuses great moments in rock music history. Some... Read more
Twenty years ago the Irish Republican Army bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton in an attempt to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her entire cabinet during a Tory Party conference. Jo Berry, Harvey Thomas and Patrick Magee will mark the Oct. 12 anniversary with a reflective evening at the historic St. James’ Church near Piccadilly Circus in London. Their goal is to talk about the lessons they have learned from one of the most shocking terrorist acts in the... Read more
Call it church-state espionage. Unitarians and other activists on the religious left have been slipping into evangelical pews to endure altar calls, praise songs and sermons against gay marriage. The Kansas-based Mainstream Coalition has a simple reason for doing this. If preachers openly endorse President Bush, its agents can report these crimes to the IRS. Reacting to these watchdogs on the left, the Religious Freedom Action Coalition promptly launched Big Brother Church Watch — www.ratoutachurch.org — to infiltrate churches that... Read more
The woman on the telephone was speaking English, but it was hard to understand what she was saying because of her strong Greek accent. She was a journalist in Greece, but I couldn’t catch the name of her newspaper. She told me her name, but I didn’t get that, either. Lest readers judge me too harshly, it helps to know that I attend an Eastern Orthodox parish with Lebanese priest who speaks Arabic, Greek, French and English. I am used... Read more
Dr. Armand Nicholi of Harvard Medical School was caught off guard as he read evaluations of his first seminar on the life and philosophy of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. “Several of the students said the same thing,” he said, recalling that semester 35 years ago. They thought the class “was good, but that it was totally unbalanced. They said it was one sustained attack on the spiritual world.” Nicholi had a problem. He decided that the students were... Read more
Anyone who has lived in a hurricane zone knows the rites that fill the hours before a storm. You wrestle with metal shutters. You fill bathtubs and rows of plastic bottles with water and make extra ice. You check radios, flashlights and battery expiration dates. Floridians in Frances evacuation zones faced the sobering act of preparing a box or two of irreplaceable papers, pictures and memories. I saved stacks of class outlines and left textbooks. I saved icons from Greece... Read more
Terry Mattingly
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