Monthly Archives: April 2015

The False Equation of Atheism and Intellectual Sophistication

The Age of Atheists will likely stay confined to certain intellectual circles: The casual philosopher, the dogmatic non-believer, the coffee-table book collector. But insofar as its argument represents a broader pathology in contemporary conversations about belief, this book matters. Most people … Continue reading

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A Calling to Redeem Rap Music

By Emma Green “We don’t challenge any heresy in the church!” John Perkins declared at a recent meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. “We don’t challenge the ugliness and dehumanization of rap in our community because it makes money for … Continue reading

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Documenting the Blues in the Mississippi Delta

By Fayemi Shakur “Although Margo Cooper did not know it when she began more than 20 years ago, she has followed that tradition and produced a documentary project that archives the oral and visual histories of blues musicians, their families and communities in … Continue reading

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Elvis is Everywhere

By John Leland, The New York Times “Let’s be frank here: Elvis devotees are a lot like fish in a barrel. Anyone can shoot them, with reliably satisfying results. Their reverence almost invites intrusion. So the measure of a portfolio … Continue reading

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The sting of Easter

                      By Steve Beard “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been … Continue reading

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Keeping It Real: An Easter Sermon

By Kenneth Tanner If you were inventing a story that you wanted people in the ancient world to believe as fact, the last thing you’d want to do is start with a woman seeing someone walking around alive whom everybody … Continue reading

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The Christian militia defending refugees, livelihood against Islamic State in Iraq

More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians, already a tiny minority, are fleeing the Islamic State. They are torn between staying in a war zone or abandoning their 2,000-year-old cultural roots. Times are dire for the last remaining Iraqi Christians. “Twenty years ago, we … Continue reading

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St. Vincent, Sufjan, and the Mothers That Made Them

By Jeffrey Overstreet I never heard her pray. She didn’t cuss. . . . She didn’t interfere the time Dad beat the breath out of me for something I didn’t do. Those are just three of the vivid memories recorded … Continue reading

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Seven Stanzas at Easter by John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers, each soft Spring … Continue reading

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How ‘Wolf Hall’ will entertain millions — and threaten to distort history in the process

By Gregory Wofle When the BBC miniseries “Wolf Hall” debuts on Masterpiece tonight, the American public will once again be enthralled by a superb British costume drama. Think “Downton Abbey” and “House of Cards” with a King Henry VIII twist. … Continue reading

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