Daniel Sullivan Burke

wnycradiolab: motherjones: Lunch break: William Stout’s 100...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:48:52 -0400

motherjones:

Lunch break: William Stout’s 100 Cartoon Portraits of Legendary Blues Artists.

These are so wonderful. If you want more Robert Johnson, check out our story, Crossroads.

What Pope Benedict XVI shares with his notorious namesake

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:55:36 -0500

(RNS) You won’t find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX.

He was a puppet pope, installed by his powerful family at a time when rival clans ruled Rome. The young man seemed uninterested in religious life, rushing through ordination only after his election to the Throne of St. Peter in 1032.

Benedict IX squandered the papacy’s moral and financial riches in bordellos and banquet halls. His violence and debauchery “shocked even the Romans,” said philosopher Bertrand Russell, which is kind of like being busted for lewdness in Las Vegas.

St. Peter Damian called Benedict IX a ”demon from hell in the disguise of a priest.” The Catholic Encyclopedia labels him a “disgrace to the chair of St. Peter.” He was the first Pope Benedict to resign, selling the papacy for gold in order to marry. He later tried to reclaim the holy office and served three stints as pope between 1032 and 1048.

Nearly a millennium later, the pious and bookish Pope Benedict XVI seems completely contrary to his notorious namesake. Even if his papacy has stumbled at times, by all accounts the current Benedict has led a chaste life devoted to serving his church.

But besides his name, by resigning on Thursday (Feb. 28) Benedict XVI shares at least one additional attribute with his precursor. Both Benedicts — the sinner and the scholar — brought St. Peter’s throne back down to earth, albeit in very different ways.

- See more at: http://www.religionnews.com/2013/02/26/what-pope-benedict-xvi-shares-with-his-notorious-namesake/#sthash.LquiqoqN.dpuf

beingblog: Bracketology at its best. Who’s going to start a...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:50:11 -0500

beingblog:

Bracketology at its best. Who’s going to start a pool on The Sweet Sistine? Much respect to David Gibson, Daniel Burke, and David Herrera at Religion News Service for this light-hearted take on the papal conclave:

More than 100 Roman Catholic cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel in March. One will emerge as pope. Who will it be? The “Sweet Sistine” is our guess at the top candidates from each continent.

You can vote below for who you think would move on to the next round in each matchup. First-round voting closes at midnight Eastern on Friday (March 1).

~Trent Gilliss, senior editor

Antichrist Superstar: Why every era finds a new Archenemy

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:01:45 -0500

(RNS) Every age needs an Antichrist.

Protestant Reformers picked the papacy as their embodiment of evil. American colonists chose King George III and some Cold War Christians suspected the Soviet Union was satanically led.

Now, amid threats of Islamic terrorism, a nuclear-armed Iran and tumult across the Middle East, a growing group of American evangelicals say the Antichrist will be Muslim.

“I understand that I’m going to be viewed as a fringe, apocalyptic Christian,” said Joel Richardson, author of several books predicting an Islamic Antichrist. “But I fully own the idea that the Antichrist will be a Muslim and will come out of the Muslim world.”

These days, even the fringe has a faithful following. On websites, television programs,conferences and books, conservative Christians like Richardson warn that a Muslim Antichrist will raise an army to attack Israel, in fulfillment of the biblical prophets and the Book of Revelation.

From there, they say, it’s a short road to Armageddon.

“Today, we’re seeing the beginning signs of that exact prophecy coming to pass,” warns Richardson.

Scholars say the arrival of Islamic Antichrist prophecies was, well, predictable.

“I think the shift to Islam was just waiting to happen,” said Glenn Shuck, an assistant professor of religion at Williams College who has studied evangelicals’ views on the apocalypse.

A certain kind of Christian, sometimes dubbed “armchair apocalyptists” or “newspaper exegetes,” seems especially inclined to cast their foes as agents of the Archenemy. The Antichrist they identify, scholars say, often reflects the era’s deepest anxieties.

Obama’s use of Scripture echoes Lincoln, King

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:08:00 -0500

(RNS) President Obama will publicly take the oath of office with Bibles once owned by his political heroes, Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Lincoln’s Bible was well read, but cited cautiously. King’s granted scriptural sanction to the civil rights movement.

President Barack Obama looks at the portrait of Abraham Lincoln that hangs in the Oval Office. RNS photo by Pete Souza/The White House.

When Obama lifts his hand from the Bibles and delivers the inaugural address on Monday, his own approach to Scripture will come into view. Characteristically, it sits somewhere between the former president and famous preacher.

His faith forged in the black church, Obama draws deeply on its blending of biblical narratives with contemporary issues such as racism and poverty. But like Lincoln, Obama also acknowledges that Americans sometimes invoke the Bible to argue past each other, and that Scripture itself counsels against sanctimony.

Obama articulated this view most clearly in a 2006 speech, saying that secularists shouldn’t bar believers from the public square, but neither should people of faith expect America to be one vast amen corner.

With Petraeus, echoes of that other warrior David

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:14:44 -0500

(RNS) It’s tempting to view the sex scandal surrounding retired Army Gen. David Petraeus through a religious lens.

After all, most faiths forbid adultery, and even before his fall from grace, some Pentagon colleagues compared Petraeus to the biblical King David — another proud and powerful warrior.

Show Caption Details

The comparison seemed even more apt after the former four-star general’s resignation from the CIA on Friday. “More than one officer cited the biblical adultery of King David and Bathsheba,” wrote The New York Times.

The Bible says that David acted righteously and kept God’s commandments — except in the case of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband.

“Will history remember David Petraeus with the same caveat?” asked Jim Denison, a Southern Baptist scholar in Dallas.

"America is different now, more so with every election cycle. Ronald Reagan won his mandate in an..."

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:34:52 -0500

“America is different now, more so with every election cycle. Ronald Reagan won his mandate in an America in which 89 percent of the voters were white. That number is down to 72 percent and falling. Fifty thousand new Latino citizens achieve the voting age every month. America will soon belong to the men and women — white and black and Latino and Asian, Christian and Jew and Muslim and atheist, gay and straight — who can comfortably walk into a room and accept with real comfort the sensation that they are in a world of certain difference, that there are no real majorities, only pluralities and coalitions.”

- David Simon (via theatlantic)

Portlandia takes on meditation.

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:13:45 -0500

Portlandia takes on meditation.

Photo

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:16:19 -0400

bgospelm: This is manliness.

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:16:05 -0400

bgospelm:

This is manliness.

"But then, across the room, I saw this beautiful guy with gorgeous flowing hair, wearing a simple..."

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:28:15 -0400

“

But then, across the room, I saw this beautiful guy with gorgeous flowing hair, wearing a simple white linen tunic and swaying gently to the music with his eyes shut, which was especially impressive because the band consisted of two elderly men rhythmically squeezing a goat. I couldn’t help staring, even after Amy told me, “I’ve heard about him. His name is Jesus and he doesn’t have a job.” But then Jesus opened his stunning blue eyes and gazed upon me, and I said to Amy, “I think I’ve just discovered one of the lost tribes of Israel.” “Which one?” she asked, and I said, “The blonds.”

Then Jesus came over and introduced himself and we chitchatted about everything, from keeping the Sabbath to how we both felt really sorry for the lame. Then I asked Jesus about his family, and he said, “My father is a carpenter,” and I could feel myself getting all flushed as I immediately thought, Hello, new coffee table.

”

- Paul Rudnick: Married to Jesus : The New Yorker (via ayjay)

timemagazine: For this week’s cover on Mitt Romney’s Mormon...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:32:02 -0400

timemagazine:

For this week’s cover on Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, we hired artist and set designer Megan Caponetto to create an actual stained-glass window—the first such commission for a cover of TIME.

The glass structure, featuring the iconic Moroni angel above a portrait of Romney, measures 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall (the exact proportions of our red border). It took Megan six and a half days to complete and features more than 230 pieces of glass. (Sketch image) Once the sketch was finalized, she began the process by brushing up on her stained glass techniques, shopping for a wide variety of colored glass and practicing how to cut, grind and solder.

Then came five days of non-stop construction on her porch in upstate New York. The work culminated in a photo shoot by Dan Forbes on Tuesday—one day before the cover went to press—in which Dan and Megan experimented with various angles and shades of light.

—D.W. Pine and Skye Gurney

Five big questions about the ‘Jesus’ wife’ discovery

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:31:33 -0400

(RNS) In a surprise announcement that seemed scripted by the novelist Dan Brown, a Harvard professor revealed an ancient scrap of papyrus on Tuesday (Sept. 18) that purports to refer to Jesus’ wife.

he so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” presents a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples, said Karen King, a well-respected historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School.

The fourth-century fragment says, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …,’” according to King. The rest of the sentence is cut off. The fragment also says “she will be able to be my disciple,” according to King.

The discovery that some ancient Christians thought Jesus had a wife could shake up centuries-old Christian traditions, King suggested.

But even King acknowledged that questions remain about the receipt-sized scrap, which contains just 33 words and incomplete sentences. Here are five of the biggest questions.

#MuslimRage: The funniest responses to Newsweek’s “Muslim rage” cover story

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:43:38 -0400

#MuslimRage: The funniest responses to Newsweek’s “Muslim rage” cover story

"Part of the time sobriety left him so confused that he just lay on the couch and watched TV, but..."

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:45:14 -0400

“Part of the time sobriety left him so confused that he just lay on the couch and watched TV, but slowly he regained his footing and began to participate in the recovery group. … For the first time in his life, Wallace found his outsized intelligence a liability. To do well in recovery required modesty rather than brilliance. It was not easy for him to accept humbling adages like ‘your best thinking got you here.’ But then how smart could he be, the other program members would remind him at their meetings, if here he was in a room in the basement of a church with a dozen other people talking about how he couldn’t stop drinking?”

- DT Max, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story (via thedependentclause)

Townsend Report: Finn conviction seen as opportunity for reform

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:04:55 -0400

Townsend Report: Finn conviction seen as opportunity for reform:

townsendreport:

KANSAS CITY • Before a Mass started early Friday morning at St. Patrick Parish, the Rev. Justin Hoye pulled an elderly woman to the side and asked her to take her time when reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to the small congregation.

Hoye planned to frame his homily from…

gifhound: Sneaking up on Dad. WATCH Obama’s full acceptance...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:44:46 -0400

gifhound:

Sneaking up on Dad.

WATCH Obama’s full acceptance speech from last night.

Is work a punishment from God?

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:33:06 -0400

(RNS) On the first Monday of September, America honors working stiffs by taking a paid day off. But does Labor Day celebrate an enterprise that God intended to be a punishment?

In a recent New York Times essay on the frenetic hustle of modern life, humorist and author Tim Kreider took the Puritans and their infamous work ethic to task. They had turned toil into a virtue, he argued, whereas God had invented it to chastise the disobedient Adam and Eve.

In an interview, Kreider explained that he was referring to Genesis, in which God tells Adam “by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread.” In the same chapter, the serpent is sentenced to an eternity of belly slithering and Eve condemned to severe childbearing pains.

“Coming as it does on the heels of the infamous Illicit Fruit Incident, the details of which there’s no need to re-hash, certainly makes it sound punitive,” said Kreider, who said he’s a veteran of 18 years of Sunday school, but no Bible scholar.

The idea that original sin ushered in a lifetime of toil is a fairly common Christian view, said Gilbert Meilaender, a professor of Christian ethics at Valparaiso University in Indiana. “Work doesn’t lose a kind of dignity it had even prior to sin, but it takes on that burdensome aspect as well,” he said.

Cooley Song

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:27:24 -0400

Cooley Song

hollybailey: For a while, this photo of a victim from this...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:48:31 -0400

hollybailey:

For a while, this photo of a victim from this morning’s shooting outside the Empire State Building was on the New York Times’ home page—one of many photos taken by random folks included in the paper’s slideshow of breaking news photos from the scene. In other words, everybody is a news photographer now. Including this guy. (Credit: Sam Gewitz via NYT)

UPDATE: Here’s the back story of the above photo—taken with an iPhone 4s—via On the Media.