Some of the rhythms are ragged, but it doesn’t take a doctorate in musicology to figure out what melody fits these lyrics. “On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my significant other in a consenting adult relationship gave to me, 12 males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming, 11 pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union…), 10 melanin-deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system... Read more

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. – History is serious business in this picturesque town that once served as the doorway to the wilds beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. Civic leaders constantly call their town “Historic Jonesborough” and note its birth in 1779. This time of year, they strive to turn their brick sidewalks, street lamps, churches, shops and inns into a living Victorian postcard. This year’s theme is the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and the calendar is packed with exhibits, concerts, dinners and... Read more

Saving souls rarely makes news, unless somebody starts saving lots of souls in a bizarre way that looks really spooky on videotape. The mass-media sawdust trail has, in the 1990s, led to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship and to the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Fla. So far, several million people have attended well-documented rites in which worshippers collapse in tears or laughter or say that they have found healing for various addictions or diseases. Meanwhile, critics keep sounding... Read more

Katherine Landsberg’s great-grandfather died in a Stalinist purge. Her grandparents were born in Russia and she grew up among Russian ?gris in the United States. She is a faithful member of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a proud, ultra-traditionalist body that has canonized Tsar Nicholas II and his family as martyrs. This helps explain why Landsberg went to Chicago’s massive Water Tower Place mall last weekend on a personal mission, distributing educational leaflets as moviegoers flocked to see... Read more

Lyndi McCartney knows that legions of feminists rank her husband as public enemy No. 1, while scores of Christian conservatives consider the Promise Keepers leader a prophet. But after 35 years of marriage, she thinks of Bill McCartney as a big hotel – with lots of rooms that needed to be unlocked and aired out. “Bill has had to let God into those rooms one at a time,” she said. “Just my luck, but my room was at the end... Read more

Throughout his 16-city U.S. tour, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has faced a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that Orthodox Christianity is growing in America. Then again, the bad news is that Orthodox Christianity is growing in America. This creates tensions. As the Old World’s symbolic leader, Bartholomew has offered many glowing words of praise, and some sharp criticisms, of the New World’s feisty flock. “Orthodox Christians, who live in a country where full religious freedom... Read more

Alex Buchan has a source inside the Communist Party in China. The Hong Kong-based reporter calls him a “high-ranking official” active in Chinese efforts to monitor and control religion. This source is a secret Christian. Buchan won’t say whether a recent meeting took place in Hong Kong or during the journalist’s latest trip into China. However, the contents of this anonymous interview will cause discomfort on both sides of America’s fierce debates on religious persecution. Americans must realize that Chinese... Read more

Once a decade, the Anglican Communion’s bishops gather in Canterbury to celebrate the ties that bind. This time around, a global coalition is preparing for the 1998 Lambeth Conference in a most unusual manner. It’s bishops have done everything they can — short of lighting a beacon in the British cathedral’s high tower — to issue a warning: “The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!” For two decades, Episcopalians have been fighting over the Bible, sex and marriage, with... Read more

For ages, many Christians have tried to work out the details for the apocalypse, right down to the precise arrival time for Jesus Christ’s return flight from heaven. Some of today’s best-known end-times experts are convinced, based on verses in Daniel and Revelation, that the saints can count on being air- lifted, or “raptured,” out of this terrestrial combat zone just before all hell — literally — breaks loose. “For those of us living in this world today as we... Read more

It’s the week after the High Holy Days and, once again, Jewish life is returning to normal. So the odds are good that any nearby temple or synagogue will have plenty of empty spaces in its pews and parking lots. Thousands of American Jews worry about this. Millions do not. Thousands live their lives as if Jewish traditions make a difference in this life or the next. But millions do not. Thus, the “most divisive factor in American Jewish life... Read more