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by Bethany Firnhaber The second annual Arab Economic Summit came and went last week, along with a missed opportunity for Western journalists to report on the complex political and religious climate in the Middle East. Leaders from across the Arab … Continue reading →

by Jill Krebs It was the case of the news media's putting the politician's foot in his mouth. Alabama's new Gov. Robert Bentley stood before a Baptist congregation earlier this week and said, “Anybody here today who has not accepted … Continue reading →

by Lee Gilmore One of my fellow bloggers has already noted the tacitly required scriptural references and broad civil-religious themes in Obama's widely lauded speech last week at the memorial for the victims of the Tucson shooting. Others have noted … Continue reading →

by Kevin Douglas Grant As the news cycle moves on to other aspects of the Tucson shootings, observers are left wondering what Sarah Palin's foray into Jewish history means for the health of the American political debate. We often hear … Continue reading →

by Jon Dillingham We're long used to the omnipresence of religious language in politics and the emphasis these terms get in the media. Eighty percent of the county identifies as religious and there is not a single member of either … Continue reading →

by Maura Jane Farrelly The Roman Catholic Church's difficult relationship with consumer culture (the realm where “choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth,” according to Pope Benedict XVI) was recently on display when Pepsico … Continue reading →

Kevin Healey In a recent post, S. Brent Plate raises important questions about the potentially stupefying effects of new media. While acknowledging the evidence presented in Nicholas Carr's The Shallows and elsewhere, Plate suggests that such research is only troubling … Continue reading →

by Richard Flory Talk about a buzz-kill. It's barely 2011 and already some obscure Christian minister is predicting the end of the world, which is supposed to happen before we even get to the half-way mark of the new year! … Continue reading →

by John Adams The New Year's Eve bombing outside Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt, unleashed a torrent of emotions in the Middle East and within the Coptic Christian community throughout the world. Within moments of the terrorist attack, the news … Continue reading →