The Dish on Disney

Timing is everything. The Christian right just ended its Disney boycott, around the time this piece ran in Radar Magazine...
Tyler Gray's article begins, "In a hard-luck year for Disney, what are Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto doing to blow off steam? Getting wasted, hooking up at pimps-and-ho’s parties, trying to get Cinderella in the sack."
Wild Kingdom: An Excerpt : In the Magazine : Radar Magazine

"Law and Order: SVU" rips off reporter's story, then portrays him as trash-picker!

Investigative reporter Mark Benjamin dissects the last episode of "Law and Order: SVU" in which soldiers who took a malaria drug go nuts months later and start killing people including themselves. The storyline was "ripped from my headlines" - after three hard years of investigative reporting, Benjamin says. But Benjamin's biggest beef is how the reporter in "SVU" is portrayed - as a trash-picker with no ethics who turns his files over to the cops.
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment Ripped from my headlines! (subscription required - hey, it's worth it!)

May the farce be with you

Hooray for Dr. Russ Dalton, professor at Brite Divinity School, for sticking up for "The Force" in a Dallas Morning News article on Star Wars and religion. (look for the link in the yellow box, otherwise you have to register) Dalton is the author of Faith Journey Through Fantasy Lands: A Christian Dialogue with Harry Potter, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings.

Meanwhile, two Star Wars fans almost blew themselves up during a mock light saber duel. Whatever The Force is, it ain't common sense....

Amnesty International accuses US of undermining human rights

BBC NEWS | Europe | Amnesty accuses US over 'torture': "In a 300-page annual report, the group accused the US government of damaging human rights with its attitude to torture and treatment of detainees. "

Dueling dinosaur museums

Another story about a museum with Adam, Eve and dinosaurs playing happily together.
What is this - a friggin' franchise?
The Observer | International | Would you Adam 'n' Eve it ... dinosaurs in Eden

Praying the News revisited

About a year ago I interviewed the Carmelites of Indianapolis to learn how they "pray the news." Recently, they launched a School of Prayer on their web site. If the "usual" way of praying doesn't cut it for you, try this.
Carmelites of Indianapolis

Massive museum based on ministry

Massive museum based on ministry A "ministry" that spends millions to show Adam and Eve with dinosaurs? Sure, says Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, a multi-million dollar extravaganza in Boone County, KY. Apparently, the editors of the Cincinnati Enquirer agreed enough to write the headline without batting an eyelash.

But here's what gets me. They did a sidebar story on 'what people are saying' about the creation museum, and all the pro/con comments centered on the questions of science, not ministry.

In other words, What does this so-called 'ministry' have to do with healing the sick, bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, or even 'making disciples'?

Ruether on Ratzinger

Read what Catholic feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether had to say about the new pope, in an interview with the Finnish magazine Suomen Kuvalehti. Ruether is prefessor emeritus at Pacific School of Religion and the author of "Sexism and God Talk" and other books

Not all evangelicals love Bush

Including some of those at Calvin College, in Michigan. The school is associated with the Christian Reformed Church. About 1/3 of the faculty and staff signed a letter protesting Bush's speech there tomorrow.

Verity- thanks for the head up on this!

The Chronicle: Daily news: 05/18/2005 -- 01

Virtual reality and healing

A couple of years back, I wrote a seminary paper on how VR can heal the mind-body dualism which religion, unfortunately, has helped perpetuate. In the paper, I argued that theologians need to engage cutting-edge technology like VR and play a role in how it develops - not to try and 'control' it (although we can weigh in on ethical matters), or to use it to "convert" people (scary) but because it has healing potential.

A few days ago, this AP article ran on the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Video games strengthen stroke victims

Holding the host hostage?

Priest denies communion to supporters of gay Catholics
Jesus' parable of the Great Banquet is attested in three gospels (Luke 14:15-24; Gospel of Thomas 64; Matthew 22:1-10). Guess the authors (Matthew's author excepted) forgot to attach a disclaimer about who is welcome.