• Alice Cooper's sideline as a Bible teacher: "I go to Bible study on Wednesday mornings - I even teach sometimes - but I'll still get up on stage and be much scarier than Marilyn Manson."
And he has no problem balancing his religion with his career path - because he doesn't swear.
He adds, "It doesn't mean that, as a Christian, you can't be a rocker or an entertainer. It's your lifestyle. I never use bad language. That's not gentlemanly. Alice might slit your throat but he'd never use the F word." (Contact Music)
• Reborn for the Fourth of July: The Feelies (NY Times)
• The founding of fireworks: The myths, realities and oddities of America's famous day. (Wall Street Journal)
• Mindy Kaling officiating first ever “Office Games” in Scranton: join the beet eating contest
• Alice Cooper spins more 'Spider' tour dates (Live Daily)
• Obama promises faith-based initiative (Swampland)
• Obama proposes expanding faith-based program (Washington Post)
• Obama wants to expand role of religious groups (NY Times)
• Obama is not a secularist (The Atlantic)
• Taking it out on the road: $4 gas leads to lots of stolen manhole covers for the extra change (USA Today)
• Obama to rename Bush's faith office (Politico)
• Evangelical leaders meet and decide to back Sen. John McCain: More than 70 evangelical leaders decided to support Sen. John McCain at a meeting in Denver on Tuesday. (Charisma)
• When car seats become church pews: New Hope UMC (Christian Post)
• STDs run rampant at Pa. school district, CDC steps in (Fox)
• Cool hand-cranked greeting cards (Boing Boing)
• Quantum of Solace teaser trailer: It continues the high octane adventures of James Bond in Casino Royale
• Report: Two-thirds care for environment because it’s God’s creation (USA Today)
• Woman sat dead in front of TV for 42 years (Daily Record)
• Cloudy trophies: John Keats’s obsession with fame and death. (New Yorker)
• “Dark Knight” selling out three weeks early! (Wired)
• U.N.: U.S. food aid arrives in N. Korea (USA Today)
• How to dreadlock (HowToDread)
• Generation Y ready to serve: Young people today need ‘meaningful work’ (UM Portal)
• The art of Japanese flowers (NY Times)
• UMCOR presence is “sign of hope” in battered Midwest (UMC)
• Mugabe's African pals: Will no one stand up to this tyrant? (Wall Street Journal)
• Not just on “Family Guy”: Q&A with Adam West
• Fact and faith: Mark Mittelberg says this is no time to jettison logic. Interview by Stan Guthrie (Christianity Today)
• Orthodox rapper, actor from Brookline reflects on his evolution (Wicked Local)
• “Wild Women in the Kitchen” (Patina)
• Wanted: inner city supermarkets (CS Monitor)
• Retirement: the meaning of Bill Gates (Economist)
• Study: More Americans know a homosexual than know an evangelical (Christian Post)
• Second graders bestowed with free tuition now have diplomas (USA Today)
• Clergy revolt over women bishops: Clergy members have written to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to say they will leave the Church of England if women bishops are ordained. (BBC)
• “Space Invaders Extreme” a fantastic update to an arcade classic (USA Today)
• The tyranny of the heirloom (NY Times)
• How would God vote? by Michael Medved (TownHall)
• Fire guts landmark Kansas City Barbecue (SD Union Tribune)
• In search of Nepal’s living goddesses: A prepubescent deity of Hindu-Buddhist tradition is also a modern child of HBO and Barbie. (CS Monitor)
• Japan’s cult retro-gaming TV show debuts in English (Wired)
• The politics of hip-hop: can rap change the world? (Economist)
• United Methodists unite to send help to Sudan (UMC)
• Dell’s sudden interest in good industrial design (Boing Boing)
• Singers try their hands at art (USA Today)
• Zimbabwe’s polls largely empty and only one candidate (CS Monitor)
• Book: Marilyn Monroe biography (Amazon)

                                                       

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• Heidi Montag is over 'The Hills' and the drama: Her eyes are on music, marriage and charity. Little coverage in celebrity magazines, which seem to chronicle every movement of this reality troupe, is given to Montag's and Pratt's Christianity. Montag identifies herself as "kind of non-denominational Baptist" and hopes to release a Christian album one day. Both she and Pratt read the Bible conscientiously. Montag even planned on devoting her life to God as a missionary in Africa. "I have been the most religious person since I was 2 years old. I always felt this crazy connection to God," says Montag. (USA Today)
• Check out Rahab Ministries
• Pastor who officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding launches pro-Obama website: Kirbyjon Caldwell, an evangelical United Methodist clergyman, stirs the pot with the "James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me" website (Washington Post)
• Bush praises faith-based groups for helping needy (USA Today)
• Church-hopping with a purpose: Fifty-two churches in a year reviewed by Linda McCullough Moore (Books & Culture)
• New faces join ranks of nation's homeless: Renters, middle class hit hard by rising foreclosures (USA Today)
• Early returns are mixed: Global evangelicals don't necessarily vote like American evangelicals by Mark Noll (Christianity Today)
• North Korea's trail of kidnapping and terror: Pyongyang should have been held to account. (Wall Street Journal)
• Obama: Expand faith-based programs (USA Today)
• The life of trees:
Their "most simple and beautiful oneness" by Alan Jacobs (Books & Culture)
• Global warming as mass neurosis: A tonic to be proffered to the ill of soul. (Wall Street Journal)
• Obama's new faith adviser: UMC seminary prof believes young evangelicals could sway election. (Christianity Today)
• An exodus from Iraq: The country's religious minorities have been brutalized and driven away as a result of the Iraq war. In fact, when it comes to religious freedom, Iraq is not far ahead of notorious abusers such as Burma, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. (USA Today)
• Spiritual tees for summer (BeliefNet)
• Actor Gene Hackman chasing a book connection (News Observer)
• Kashmir’s mass protests (CS Reporter)
• Caroline Kennedy's new profile: Politics. As adviser to Obama, she takes a step into the familiar (USA Today)
• London’s gardens: allotments for the people (NPR)
• Roller revival: More than 30 years after its heyday, roller derby is back. (Honolulu Magazine)
• Tobacco ban wafts into Amsterdam pot shops — but joints still legal (USA Today)
• Conservatives say not quitting Anglican communion (Washington Post)
• Gay weddings not quite a piece of cake: With the newfound business, some in the industry are conflicted between work ethics and personal beliefs. (LA Times)
• The “new” pulpier version of G.K. Chesterton's “Man Who Was Thursday” (PopMatters)
• Russian model jumps from NYC building, dies (USA Today)
• Planet organic: bad news for the poor (Economist)
• On the other hand: Winehouse punches fan at Glastonbury (Sun)
• Yoga twists its way to Olympic spotlight (NPR)
• Never, ever, eat butterfish (Radar)
• From Brooklyn: a rap campaign against tight clothes (Village Voice)
• Wired photo contest: food (Wired)
• Google-themed sari at Delhi mall (OurDelhiStruggle)
• Review: “Method Man” (Paste)
• Cast ready to roll on 'Whip It!': Marcia Gay Harden among actors in Drew Barrymore roller derby film (Hollywood Reporter)
• Solution or mess? The new milk jug (NY Times)

                                                       

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• P.O.D. unleashes heavy vibes on new disc (MorningStar)
• 'Wanted': Visually stunning and ethically loathsome, for better or worse, 'Wanted' is one of the freshest action movies in years. Reviewed by Christopher Orr (New Republic)
• Rapper Jal, living to tell about it. Tales of brutality infuse his music. "I don't take modern hip-hop as real," says Jal, whose tune 50 Cent appeals to the rap icon for a ceasefire on violent lyrics that glamorize thug life. "It's entertaining, it's fake, like James Bond. If you really kill, you don't want to talk about it." (USA Today)
• No babies? (NY Times)
• Housework and s-x: What's the connection? (CNN)
• Reading the Bible with Obama: The presidential candidate crosses swords with Dr. Dobson over hermeneutics. (Christianity Today)
• Black pastors hit political parties on abortion by Julia Duin (Washington Times)
• Bless this bottled water: Forget Evian or Vitaminwater. The latest beverage trend: 'Holy Water.' (Newsweek)
• Tom Waits dazzles with glitter (Billboard)
• Bag lady: Anita Ahuja turns trash into treasure, and helps India's downtrodden ragpickers along the way. (Forbes)
• From Four Laws to Four Circles: James Choung has found a way to tell the old, old story to a new generation. Interview by Andy Crouch (Christianity Today)
• A life worth living: When Harriet McBryde Johnson died earlier this month at the age of 50 from a congenital neuromuscular disease, obituaries called her a "disability-rights activist." This is far too narrow a description of her life. She was less a traditional activist than an acute social conscience. Ms. Johnson forced us to look at disability in a different way -- not as something that we should seek to eradicate, but as something that is integral to the human condition, a "natural part of the human experience," as the American Association of People With Disabilities puts it. (Wall Street Journal)
• Warren Sapp's Raider experience: 'Dark as a black hole' (SF Chronicle)
• Yolking with postmodernism: Where is postmodern culture headed? Two recent films, Chicken Run and The X-Men, suggest a neo-Romantic turn by Crystal Downing (Books & Culture)
• Young evangelicals, elections and real work by Tim Kumfer (BeliefNet)
• United Methodists unite to send help to Sudan (UMNS)
• Genius at tutoring: Public schools don't have the time to teach writing. Author Dave Eggers is making up for that, with a little quirky humor thrown in. (Forbes)
• Sally Quinn takes communion (America)
• The Messiah Channel: Jeremiah Wright & the conservatives who preach just like him by Russell D. Moore (Touchstone)
• Up all night with Amy Winehouse: Over beer, tea and banana sandwiches, the singer opens up about her jailed husband, her next record and her unraveling life (Rolling Stone)
• A (tumultuous) year in the life of Amy Winehouse: The arrests, awards and antics that followed the singer's June 2007 RS cover (Rolling Stone)
• Unlikely Krauss, Plant duo transcends roots (SF Chronicle)
• The Bible and conservatism: An interview with David Klinghoffer, a senior fellow in the Discovery Institute's program in Religion, Liberty, and Public Life and author of How Would God Vote?: Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Conservative. (American Thinker)
• Christianity is flourishing in China: The religion, long repressed and often outlawed in the communist nation, appeals to citizens seeking a moral framework amid the chaotic rise of capitalism. (LA Times)
• Al Green makes Carnegie Hall his love church (New York)
• Al Green and Gladys Knight do right by the classics of ‘70s soul (Providence Journal)
• Pupil gains marks for exam expletive (Reuters)
• Presbyterian assembly votes to drop gay clergy ban (AP)
• Infectious agents: A review of Jessica Snyder Sachs' Good Germs, Bad Germs by Matthew Sleeth (Books & Culture)
• Women from polygamist sect start their own clothing line (USA Today)
• Morocco’s music festival: World Sacred Music (BBC)

                                                       

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• A review of Wanted. Over-the-top and morally-ambiguous comic-book violence leads to some surprisingly serious thoughts about fate and free will. Review by Peter T. Chattaway (Christianity Today)

• Markets for the poor in Mexico: Microfinancing is lifting low-income entrepreneurs out of poverty. So why are nonprofits so upset? Mary Anastasia O'Grady (Wall Street Journal)
• John McCain meets with Billy Graham (LA Times)
• The flying circus: What do you get when you take three kids on a first-time family vacation to Hong Kong? An international incident by P.J. O'Rourke (Forbes)
• The culturally creative church: An interview with Andy Crouch (Infuze)
• Books, not bombs by Nicholas Kristoff (NY Times)
• The myth of the “evangelical crackup” (First Things)
• Waxing poetic: Peter Dayton's surfboard paintings play a nifty art-historical joke while staying easy on the eyes. (Forbes)
• The gospel according to the Boss (RNS)
• The Sam’s Club agenda by David Brooks (NY Times)
• Faithful in pews might not be voters in November (AP)
• Will Smith has found the magic formula. Smith has been taking more knocks than usual, primarily for his ties to Cruise and speculation that he has converted to Scientology. But Smith, who was raised Baptist and says he remains Christian (he co-founded the non-denominational Christian church Living Waters in San Fernando Valley), takes such gossip about as seriously as he does marauding space creatures. "You have to let that roll off you," he says. Still, he's bothered by how the entertainment media handle Cruise's faith. "That's painful for me to see. I've met very few people committed to goodness the way Tom is. We disagree on a lot of things. … But even with different faiths and different beliefs, at the end of the day, goodness is goodness." (USA Today)
• Neo-Pagans art den (Denver Post)
• Art, faith, and humanity: graphic novel “The Rabbi’s Cat” returns (NPR)
• Methodism, missions, and Millenials by Andrew C. Thompson (UMPortal)
• Is make-believe vital to kids? You better believe it. (USA Today)
• Book review: Hurtado’s “Lord Jesus Christ” (Quadrilateral Thoughts)
• Europe's bloodsport: Euro 2008 football shows that nationalism is alive on the Continent. (Wall Street Journal)
• Malt liquor mural ads raise hackles in Philly (USA Today)
• Chaplain works with prisoners on “maximum” ministry (UMC)
• Innovative vacuum cleaners: shoes (Trendhunters)
• “American Nerd: The Story of My People” (Amazon)
• He drives this game-Show vehicle (Wall Street Journal)
• Jolie’s “Wanted” weaves intriguing, if far-fetched, plot (USA Today)
• Back to Sunday school: The author of Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered says the church must reclaim its disciple-making infrastructure. (Christianity Today)
• The 24 habits of highly effective zombies (Amazon)
• Busted: the brothel bus (WIOD)
• Madison, Wisconsin seeking to ban drive-thru’s to avoid global warming (USA Today)
• Daniel Libeskind opens a Jewish museum for all (Wall Street Journal)
• Pop culture auction at Christie’s
• What was that book? Remember a snippet of a children’s story, but not the title? (LiveJournal)
• 12 things to watch on the web (USA Today) 
• MTV to accept political ads for the first time (The Daily Swarm)
• Christians on trial in Algeria for spreading faith (USA Today)
• Campaign Cola from Jones Soda
• Tattooed canvases: Body art inspires artist’s latest portrait series. (South Bend Tribune)
• Urban garden below sidewalk grates (Boing Boing)
• How Putin muzzled Russia's press: Criticism hasn't been good for reporters' health by Garry Kasparov (Wall Street Journal)
• Benazir and her pocket-full of CDs (Wired)
• Coldplay to audition opening acts via You Tube contest (Rolling Stone)
• Agency awards “Peace with Justice” grant to center for former child soldiers (UMC)
• New Beck songs (Idolator)
• “House of the Carpenter” gives hope to the poor (UMC)
• “Waterfalls” display opens on NYC harbor (Daily Swarm)
• U2 unveils tracklists for reissues (Paste)
• G.I. Joe convention: you know they don’t make these anymore, right? That's so lame. (G.I. Joe Club)
• Blade Runner Lego car (Boing Boing)
• How Art got his groove back (NPR)
• The five stages of renewal in the local church by Rick Warren (Christian Post)

                                                       

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