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Last night's improbable win by the Giants seemed an answer to many a churchgoer's prayers (and rejection by others!) But in a story in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, we find out that in the lead-up to this Sunday's Super Bowl, the NFL and a number of churches have faced off over the right of houses of worship to get in on the game.
Some things are too horrible to go uncommented upon. The potential role that mentally disabled women played in the suicide bombings in Baghdad over the weekend that the Iraqi authorities say killed nearly a hundred is one of them.
People do so many awful things daily in the name of God, I could be at this keyboard around the clock. But that would be both bad for my wrists and unfair to all that is sublime and transformative in religious faith.
Just a quick piece of news: I have heard several reports now from people within the TM Movement confirming that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died around noon today at his home in Vlodrop, Holland. He had been sick and was reported to be 91 years old. Last month, he officially announced that he would be stepping down from his role as leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement, which he created a half century ago.
I wrote previously about the questions that the Maharishi's death would bring up for the TM Movement and its future.
A lot of people adored Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement, who died yesterday. Maharishi was known as the giggling guru and he preached world peace and pure consciousness for every man.
Strangely, one of his biggest fans and followers was neo-noir film director David Lynch, who has authored films such as Blue Velvet and Lost Highway that explore something that seems more like subterranean consciousness. David runs a charity that aims to teach children TM and he has given many talks on the benefits of meditation.
I gave him a call at his production office here in Los Angeles and see what he was thinking about the day after the death of his guru.
Little story carried on the wires of President Bush's comments that he had struggled with "addiction" to alcohol and had prevailed over his problem because of his belief in a higher power.
Now the ability of religious belief to help people stop destroying themselves is great and nothin' to sneeze at. But why is Bush talking about this now?
Several new books reviewed this weekend take aim at the notion that being religious and liberal need not be antithetical. It is the fault, they say, of the Democratic Party that Americans have come to think of them that way.
In yesterday's NY Times Book Review, R. Scott Appleby, one of the smartest academics studying born-again America, takes a look at the question of how the Democratic party has alienated Christian voters. He writes that the "leadership of the Democratic Party, to its misfortune, has tended to confuse the religious right with religion, period. As a result, they can now look back at a long campaign of successful efforts to alienate white Christians, who make up two-thirds of the American electorate."
Part of religion is looking for answers to the big questions. My friend Jack turned eleven in January and we recently took a walk in Hollywood's oldest cemetery, Hollywood Forever, where Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille and the like are buried. It was twilight and brisk and Jack was sort of sleepy and sort of wanted to be home playing video games but instead he was trudging through the wet grass and explaining to me how he understands God.
I thought French president Nicolas Sarkozy couldn't make me any happier until Wednesday when he pissed off many with his announcement to the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France that faith has a place in the public sphere. He also suggested French schoolchildren should study the children who were victims of the Holocaust.
Like most people, I have a favorite person in the news. For some of you it may be Britney Spears or Warren Buffett or Condi Rice, but for me it is without a doubt Sarkozy. I read everything about him and he always manages to delight me -- marrying a supermodel, infuriating French unions, asking Bush to be best friends, telling the French to work harder. Now he wants more God in French culture?
Stop it Sarkozy, stop this wonderfulness!
Is Obama the Messiah? People are asking these days and it's not so hard to understand why: the desperate throngs, the tears, the great awakening of a slumbering demographic. All that larger symbolism.
The emotional landscape of many American voters is calamitous of late -- frightened by our Babylonian war, unhappy with our President and depressed by the cleansing crush of the credit crunch -- so it's not surprising that the coming presidential election would take on a certain biblical coloring.
A group that calls itself Anonymous has been putting the Church of Scientology in a world of hurt lately-with cyber mischief and costumed protests around the world -- but nobody much seems to care. Why?
In Monday's LA Times Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine, says it's because most people don't consider the Church a church.
ABC News aired a hard hitting look at the so-called battle between religion and porn last night in their "Nightline: Face-Off series," which asked the tough question: "Is America Addicted to Porn?"
Refusing to stop with the obvious answer of 'yes,' ABC set up a debate at Yale University, between two porn stars, a "porn pastor" and a recently converted former porn producer to get to the truth.
The Oscars are on Sunday night and the nominees for Best Picture are by and large pretty great films. I've been mulling over whether that group of films say anything about where our country is at in terms of our collective sense of God, faith, chaos, destiny and all that.
Don't take it from me, but, honestly, this was a great year for the movies. I didn't love everything rewarded during last night's Oscar telecast (did "Once" really need ALL that music?). But the movies I did love, I loved like crazy.
Every national newspaper (that I read) ran the results of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey done by the folks at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life yesterday. Headlines mostly highlighted the denominational and religious shifts of Americans from one faith to another, or bridging into unaffiliated territory. Is this dramatic shift in our national religious character?
For the most part, no.
A smart lady I know, Kate Aurthur, has an excellent piece in today's LA Times about the most recent episode of Fox's new game show, "The Moment of Truth."
If you've missed this bizarre new hit, I'll summarize: contestants undergo a pre-show interview strapped to a polygraph and are then asked questions about every deep and dirty secret in their life. On the air, the contestant sits before a couch filled with loved ones, along with an audience that numbers close to 9 million, and are then asked about these questions. If they answer truthfully, money. They have the chance to make $200,000. If their answers are false--based on the pre-interview polygraph results--they get the boot with nothing.
Watch this clip first, and then let's talk.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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