Category Archives: The Scoop

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 →

What happens when true believers see God on opposite sides of a controversial issue? According to the Los Angeles Times, they respectfully agree to disagree. But a growing Mormon rift on the fate of illegal immigrants may be pricklier than … Continue reading →

by Nick Street One day when my father, a Southern Baptist preacher's kid, was a sophomore at Mississippi College in 1949, he heard the door to the lecture hall open during a biology class and nearly fell out of his … Continue reading →

by S. Brent Plate In his bestseller The Shallows and his well-thumbed Atlantic article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that the “quiet places” for “deep reading” and “any other act of contemplation” are disappearing from our wired … Continue reading →

So much speculation on the meaning of John Boehner's tears: Is he drunk? Depressed? Distressed by contradictions? Or just playing us? There have been gender critiques too. It's okay for tough conservative guys to cry because it humanizes them. But … Continue reading →

by Nick Street Who counts as a Christian conservative? What issues will drive rank-and-file “values voters” to the polls during the next presidential election? And do all voters who compose this chunk of the electorate—mainly evangelical or “born-again” Christians—value the … Continue reading →

by Richard Flory With the recent midterm election now behind us, reporters are beginning to speculate about potential Republican challengers to President Obama, and even challengers from within his own party, in the 2012 presidential election. To date, much of … Continue reading →

by Lee Gilmore The latest showdown about California's infamous Proposition 8 saw the two sides presenting arguments to determine the proper legal standing of those who seek to defend that amendment, as well as testimony concerning the law's the constitutional … Continue reading →