Theolog

The internet and Trinity UCC

By Jason Byassee

The email threads started coming in after the Iowa Caucus. “Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, ready to destroy the country if elected.” “Obama refuses to cover his heart for the pledge of allegiance.” These and other charges surfaced early in 2007, when it became clear Barack Obama would be a serious contender for the Democratic nomination; and each charge was quickly refuted. But they reemerge occasionally, because they conflate two primal American fears: that of the black bogeyman, and that of the Muslim bogeyman.

What a friend we have?

By Susan Olson

Several years ago, the Catholic Campus minister convinced me to give Facebook a try. She called it a “campus minister’s dream,” and she was right. It’s the best advertising tool I’ve used, and, as a bonus, the site lets me upload pictures for group members’ use, access to birthday reminders and locate recent photos.

Facebook, like most Web social networking sites, is based on the concept of friendship. Let’s say “Jerome” joins the network, and searches for his pal “Jill.” He sends Jill a friendship request message. When she accepts his request, Jerome can read Jill’s page. While perusing it he notices that his basketball buddy Kofi is listed as one of Jill’s friends, so he “friends” Kofi. “Lather, rinse, repeat” and Jerome has a long list of friends whom he can keep up with by logging on to the site.

I decided right away that I would not send friendship requests to students.

Redesign

We’ve spent the better part of the last year working on a redesign for our magazine. The new look appeared this month. We hadn’t done a major redesign since 1992. What do you think of it? We ask not only because we want to give you a forum to vent about it or to praise it (and because we’re proud of the result), but because there are always things we can learn from reader reactions.

In God's name

By Jason Byassee

“When I die I shall see myself as I’ve never seen myself before, I shall see myself in the light of God’s truth. That may not be very comfortable at all. Sometimes I feel afraid of it . . . All can do is trust that God already sees that truth and already loves me. So even when I see myself in the most unattractive light, God is still love. Can I accept that? We’ll see when I die.”

Those are the words of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England. This interview is more interesting than other interviews with him on homosexuality, or on the crisis in the Anglican communion: this one is personal. If these and other soundbytes in a 15-minute publicity trailer are any indication, the upcoming 2-hour CBS primetime special, In God’s Name, will not only be worth the time—it will also be spectacular (9-11 p.m., December 23).

Hoaxes and urban legends

By John Dart

Whenever friends or relatives forward me a fishy article, dubious factoid or heart-tugging chain letter, I recommend that they visit Snopes. It’s a resource for editors, clergy and educators who need help debunking dubious claims. Or look at Urban Legends. It has resources to refute, for example, a claim circulating in conservative Christian circles that a “hate crime” bill in Congress would punish pastors who preach sermons against homosexuality. “The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans chapter 1 or 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday school class,” says a letter dated June 14 that urges recipients to spread the alarm.

The Warren-Murdoch link

By John Dart

Author-minister Rick Warren says he is media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s pastor, though the relationship between the two influential newsmakers seemed rather vague and informal when the claim was published last fall. But Warren’s conservative evangelical critics, already unhappy with the Baptist pastor’s occasional independence from old-guard cultural ideology, were very purposeful in pointing out an alleged incongruity: Murdoch has pornographic channels on his satellite TV companies. They suggested that Warren should rebuke him.

It wasn’t the first controversy over Murdoch’s high-profile friendships in church circles.

Vonnegut and the Century

In this week’s Newsweek, David Gates honors Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical fiction and his “appropriate” response to an era that included WW II, the Dresden firebombing, and other 20th-century horrors. Gates mentions a Century interview from 1976: the complete interview is posted here.

An additional article, "Kesey and Vonnegut: Preachers of Redemption," by James R. Tunnell, is available to subscribers on the Century Web site. (Click “Subscriber exclusive” on the home page).

Born-again media

By Louis R. Carlozo

Here is news, to paraphrase newspaper guru Gene Roberts, that isn’t breaking but trickling and seeping without much notice: Newspapers are still very much alive.

Let’s dive in by way of analogy. Remember when a little thing called television came along in the 1940s? It was supposed to kill off radio for good: Who wanted to listen to a box without pictures when something new, sleek and flashing was available?

Blogstorm on Levine

By Jason Byassee

One of the reasons we began Theolog was to have a venue in which to respond when blogstorms erupted over material in the Christian Century. A ministorm indeed erupted over “Misusing Jesus: How the church divorces Jesus from Judaism” in the December 26 issue, our excerpt of Amy-Jill Levine’s new book The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco).

Fade of religiously liberal magazines

John Dart responds to the recent story about the closing of several high-profile liberal-leaning religious magazines. The original story suggested the Christian Century was the only exception. It overlooked Sojourners.