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By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin

In his recent comments on the Fox News Channel’s FOX & Friends morning show, Geraldo Rivera claimed that the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was equally the result of (i) an “overzealous and irrational” neighborhood watchman (George Zimmerman) as well as (ii) Treyvon Martin’s ethnicity, gender, and attire. By appearing in public as a dark-skinned and hoodie-cloaked male, Rivera suggests, Trayvon unwittingly (and unwisely) presented the neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, with a highly ambiguous object. On one hand, Trayvon was merely a boy (age 17, though in fact he appeared considerably younger) eating Skittles while walking home; on the other hand, he was a black male donning garb associated “with robberies, muggings, and confrontations,” which sensible others (read middle-class whites) seek to avoid. 

For Rivera, the latter reading of Trayvon is clearly the most compelling: if black and Hispanic males wish to “stylize themselves as gangsta wannabes,” then they should expectto be “perceived as a menace,” as such perceptions represent “an instant, reflexive action” on the part of others (again, read whites). “Trayvon Martin,” Rivera passionately concludes, “was an innocent and wonderful kid,” who “did not deserve to die,” and “if he did not have that hoodie on… that nutty, irrational guy would not have responded in that violent and aggressive way.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTMyb15bfAE

There is of course a great deal to be said about this utterly horrific event, and this post in no way seeks to trivialize its moral, legal, and cultural significance; quite the opposite, in fact. For the Trayvon Martin case brings to light one of the ways in which American culture has come to imagine (and in this case, violently respond to) some perceived embodied identities. 

In thinking about this case, my attention is drawn back to our recent spate of posts regarding the symbolic function of zombies in contemporary American culture, and to the popular TV series, The Walking Dead (TWD), especially. Over the course of two seasons, the show’s characters, as well as audiences, have gradually transitioned from intense revulsion at seeing zombies (who appear to be people but no longer are) summarily executed (often shot in the head at point blank range), to a sense of empowerment and celebration as “walkers” are “put down” by heroes and heroines who narrowly escape being torn apart and consumed. More, the show’s characters have increasingly come to deal with perceived ambiguities as to who is a zombie and who is still a human being by means of lethal force, evident in Andrea’s overly hasty shooting of an injured Darrell limping back to the farm (whom she mistakes for a zombie), and who is a threat as opposed to a viable community member, evident in the group’s willingness to summarily execute other human beings deemed to be dangerous. 

My point here, obviously, is not to compare Trayvon Martin to zombies or George Zimmerman to television heroes. But rather to suggest that the progression of character (and audience?) sensibilities evident in TWD powerfully mirrors American attitudes as to how identities are decoded, categorized, and reacted to. What Rivera implicitly frames and defends as understandable–the “instant, reflexive” perception of a dark-skinned, hoodie-wearing, male, walking through an affluent, gated, residential neighborhood as a “menace” that “allows” the “irrational and overzealous” neighborhood watchman to shoot him–is disturbingly close to the brink TWD characters approach, one in which the world is comprised of true human beings (those like us) and “zombies” (those not like us). 

Was Trayvon Zimmerman’s imaginary zombie, that which only appears to be a full human being, but is in fact a subhuman being intent upon violence and brutality against others, that ultimately ought to be “put down,” shot at point-blank range? Does the hoodie transform the smiling dark-skinned teenager into a “walker” in Rivera’s conceptual world? Again, such comparisons are disturbingly close to the mark and, given the misanthropy, racism, bigotry, and misogyny obvious in many popular appropriations of the “killing zombies” motif, they are chilling indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TceD2Il3QFA

 ***************

Originally posted at Religion Bulletin, March 26, 2012.  Follow Religion Bulletin on Facebook. 

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By  Kenny Smith

As Lauri Lebo noted in her March 23, 2010 Religion Dispatch post, “although most Christians assume that the ideas and practices surrounding the Easter holiday are native to Christianity, Easter’s historical origins in fact lie in the pre-Christian, pagan religious worlds of Northern Europe. “The word ‘Easter,’”  Lebo explains, “is actually the name of an ancient, heathen goddess who represents fertility, springtime, and the dawn.”  Contemporary Pagans, Wiccans, Heathens, Druids, and other such communities working to re-create, preserve, and practice various pre-Christian traditions (whom I will group together here under the term “Neo-Pagan”) agree entirely! Popular websites such as Covenant of the Goddess, Witches Voice, and Witchology, discuss the ancient roots of the Easter holiday as grounded in Germanic goddess-figures alternately known as Eostre or Ostara.  Some have also begun to suggest that we “not forget the REAL reason for the season!,” and work to “Keep the Eostre in Easter.”

Now, we know that new and alternative movements, over time, typically grow more and more like the larger culture in which they live.  A good example of this process (which scholars refer to as “accommodation”), can be seen in the Unificationist Church (popularly known as the Moonies).  As Barbara Bradley Hagerty reported for NPR, with its membership “dwindling,” the Unificationist church has brought some of its teachings into greater alignment with the larger Western culture. For example, although marriages with the Unificationist community have been traditionally (and controversially) arranged by the movement’s founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, parents have now been granted the authority to arrange marriages for their own children. While past generations of converts were expected to sacrifice their careers and dedicate their lives to laboring on behalf of the church, personal achievement and financial success are now explicitly encouraged: “[t]oday, the church wants college valedictorians, not dropouts… [it] wants the second generation to fit into society — not fight it.”

This raises a very interesting question about the direction in which American Neo-Pagan traditions are headed. When we think about  Christian communities insisting that the Christmas holiday be configured in explicitly religious terms, rather than, a more secular holiday defined by bright and colorful lights, decorating a tree, giving gifts, the myth of Santa Claus, and spending celebratory time with fiends and family, images of a religious militancy seem as if they are not that far behind. Indeed, while I sometimes grow weary of Christmas shopping, I always dread the shrill religious voices demanding that I observe a Christmas defined along certain pre-approved, sectarian lines.

Are American Neo-Pagans taking on some of these characteristics in their gradual accommodation to the larger culture? Can we expect increasingly shrill Neo-Pagan voices demanding adherence to sectarian understandings of Eostre over and above all competing others?  I would argue that this is unlikely to be case, and that efforts to “keep the Eostre in Easter” differ significantly from those to “keep the Christ in Christmas.” This is so for at least two reasons.

Firstly, the positionality of Neo-Pagans within the broader culture differs radically from that of most Christians. While Christian communities often perceive themselves as a persecuted minority, as living in a time when all things Christian “are being discouraged and swept away,” this is a very difficult argument to sustain. As numerous sociological studies have shown, most Americans (72%) continue to self-identify as Christian, and most seats of political, economic, and social power are filled by those who see themselves as Christian. One suspects that, within some Christian communities, “being persecuted” has come to be mean “no longer enjoying an hegemonic presence” in American culture.  Neo-Pagans, however, occupy a very different position. While their numbers continue to grow at impressive rates, if grouped with all other “new movements,” they only represent approximately 1.2% of the adult population. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm) Consequently, they are much more likely to experience not only discrimination in various forms, but social invisibility.

Secondly, unlike most Christian communities, Neo-Pagan traditions are not at all evangelical. They do not assume a mandate to make their worldview everyone else’s worldview, and so they do not actively seek converts. To the contrary, many such groups rebuff those who seek to join them and require the completion of lengthy periods of study (a year and a day is not uncommon), tests of competency, initiations, and group consensus as to the appropriateness of applicants, prior to admittance. In such contexts, rates of attrition may run as high as 90%.  Neo-Pagan traditions, then, tend to regard their own teachings and practices as suitable only for a small number of persons with particular interests and temperaments.

Taken together, these differences suggest quite varied frames of reference for Christmas and Eostre purity concerns. Christians who seek to police the ways in which Christmas is conceptualized and lived are hoping to reestablish clear cultural control. For many, this is not simply a matter of preference, but a cosmological and eschatological necessity.

For Neo-Pagans, who are better understood as a religious species recently returned from the brink of extinction, and who practice a largely esoteric religious craft, Eostre purity concerns represent an act of resistance and a struggle to assert one’s cultural identity within a culture where such Neo-Pagan identities are often demonized or unrecognized.

Still, when we consider the sustained rates of growth with this community, the diffusion of its symbols into popular culture (e.g., in the Harry Potter novels and films), and the tendency towards accommodation over time, one wonders whether Neo-Pagan traditions might come to resemble more closely the dominant religion in ways that could shift Eostre purity concerns in a different direction. In my own research with Wiccans, more than a few have expressed concerns about precisely this issue. “I’m not sure I would be comfortable,” a Wiccan priestess remarked to me several years ago, “if Wicca became the dominant religion in our culture, the way Christianity is now. I’m not sure I would it would remain ‘Wicca’ anymore.”

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University  

In Austin, Texas, yet another “Jedi Camp”offers training for youngsters.  In San Francisco, adult Jedi demonstrate advanced light-saber fighting skills. Exactly how much Jedi-based social production does it take to constitute a “religious movement,” anyway?  

Down the road in Houston, neighbors continue to bring devotional offerings to an oak tree in one man’s yard, in which they claim to see the Virgin Mary. Fortunately, said resident has no plans to take the tree down and violate their religious freedom to come onto his property.   

While the Church of Later-Day Saints of Jesus Christ has been busy baptizing dead Jews (such as Anne Frank) into Mormonism (and apologize for it), one website offers to make dead Mormons gay, since “sadly, many Mormons throughout history have died without knowing the joys of homosexuality.” 

Glenn Beck, apparently, now self-identifies as Catholic as well as Mormon, since “Catholic” means “a person of faith” who stands up to government oppression.  

Verging on incoherence, a spokesperson for the Santorum campaign temporarily denounced President Obama’s “radical Islamic environmental policies.”  Speaking of which, one (billionaire) Santorum supporter argues for a more traditional and cost-effective solution to the contraception-debate: “have girls put an aspirin between their legs,” while one longtime evangelical (Chuck Colson) compares government requirements to provide insurance coverage for contraception to Nazi attempts to exterminate the Jews.  

In Sweden, a self-identified vampire and cannibal are to be married, presided over by a priest form the Church of Satan, despite the fact that both are “permanently confined to the high-security Karsuddens psychiatric facility for crimes that shocked the country.”   

One state legislator in Delaware is said to have taken a knee and “Tebowed” after his sponsored bill passed successfully through the chamber.  

Seven members of Michigan’s Hutaree militia are on trial for conspiring to kill a police officer (and bomb his funeral procession). Defense attorneys, though, argue that the Hutaree were preparing for war against the biblical anti-Christ, not the federal government. Since when did militias draw this fine of a distinction?  

At the Monroe Institute in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, ordinary folk learn to tap the mind’s hidden powers, up to and including voyages out of the body. 

While half way between the celebration of pre-Christian, spring-based holidays such as Imbolc (Feb. 2) and Ostara (March 21), modern-day Pagans and Wiccans recall the pagan roots of St. Valentine’s Day.

For busy Christians on the go, some churches offer Ash Wednesday drive-throughs, while others bring the sacred ritual out into the streets.  Elsewhere, this same approach is being tried out by funeral parlors, with drive-through viewings of loved ones, though not so much the “bring the viewings out in the street.”

In one northern Italian town, wives have forbidden their husbands from patronizing a new brand of racy coffee bars offering “sexpressos.” 

The son of Hollywood director Oliver Stone is said to have converted to Islam (as a Shiite, not a Suni), and plans to make a film (to be shot in Iran) about the 13^th century Sufi poet Rumi.  

In North Carolina, some Baptists are arguing against a constitutional amendment that would rule out the possibility of same-sex marriages.  

In Tennessee, “a former FBI agent who claims mosques in nearby Nashville, Tenn., have no legal right to exist” has been hired to train local police “about Islam and the threats of terrorism.”  Sounds fair and balanced to me.  

It’s been two weeks, and Niki Minaji’s performance at the Grammys, “in which she confessed to a priest in Anglican dogcollar, was tied to a Catherine wheel, danced with some scantily clad altar boys, knelt in prayer and, at last, was exorcized,” is still surreal.

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University

In Breckenridge, Colorado, the town council passed a resolution allowing public consumption of alcoholic beverages for “Uller Fest,” a day-long celebration, complete with a bonfire, dedicated to Uller, the Norse god of snow.   

Despite the positive effects of popular TV series such as Big Love, the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” Jon Huntsman’s and Mitt Romney’s presidential bids, and a national public relations campaign, concerns have grown among Mormons about those who grow up and leave the church, as well as the inability to control information about LDS history (e.g., that Joseph Smith was a polygamist and defended this practice as divinely mandated). Mormons make up approximately 2% of the American population and nearly half feel that they are discriminated against on religious grounds, though are nonetheless optimistic about their future.   

New research from the Pew Forum tracks changes in political preferences (since 2008) among the largest religious groups.  Will Evangelicals support Mitt Romney, that is, a Mormon, for President? A smart piece in Rolling Stone looks to history to American history to figure this out.   

With some 30 nations now possessing weapons of mass destruction, do we need a mega-dose of “let’s all just get along”? If so, does Tim Tebow signal our inevitable demise? One blogger argues that he does.  Doomsday prophecies may seem depressing, but they make for excellent tourism.  

In Philadelphia, Atheist organizations find that even the most innocuous advertisements anger some religious folk.  Would it be easier if Atheists reframed their views as a religion? We may yet find out. One well-known British thinker has called for a new kind of Atheism, one that will “let atheists deny a creator and yet not forsake all the other good things religion can offer—tradition, ritual, community, insights into living a good life, the ability to experience transcendence, taking part in institutions that can change the world, and the rest,” including a magnificent Atheist Temple in the heart of London, and potentially other cities around the world as well. Is this the coming global religion?  In Rhode Island, one Atheist teenager who protested a public display of religion in her school, now receives phone threats and needs a police escort to attend school.

In Rome, some reports have it that the mere public presence of the Pope exorcised demons from the possessed in attendance, and to dramatic effect.  In the US., people pay good money for such services.

One author considers the possibility that an implicit Star Wars theology, learned from a  young age by virtue of George Lucas’ films, has “ruined our lives.”  Australian scholar Carole M. Cusack discusses her research in “invented religions” (such as Jediism) and why scholars should take them seriously. Listen here.  

Want to grab your teammates’ asses after a dramatic play? Great, just don’t do it in Iran, where soccer players may face (quite literally) a public lashing for inappropriate touching. Yet another study finds that Muslims in the US and Canada do not want Sharia implemented as the law of the land. 

In Indiana, state legislators passed a bill that would allow for religious creation accounts to be taught in public schools, including Scientology.  

In Sacramento, CA, The Church of Scientology has opened a new center, and in doing so has completely renovated one of the city’s “finest surviving example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style,” the Ramona Hotel, which first opened in 1930.  In Tampa, the Church of Scientology has come under criticism for suppression others’ freedom of speech, while cherishing its own.  

In Atlanta, the controversial minister Eddie Long was wrapped in a Torah scroll by a Messianic Jewish Rabbi and proclaimed “King,” in a public ritual that seemed to offend just about everybody.  

 For a psychedelic initiation into the Church of Bob (i.e., the Sub-Genius), view here, or here, or below. 

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University

Unsatisfied with an average lifespan of 70 odd years?  Consider the emerging tradition of Transhumanism which seeks to convince traditional religions to open their minds (and souls) to fusion with the technological.

See, for example, “The Cyborg Buddha,” which explores the possibility that the goals of Buddhism (freedom from suffering) might well by grafting organic and technological components in a new and improved humankind. Yes, they’re serious. 

Hoping to attract the attention of “nones” (i.e., the 18% of Americans who have no use for “organized religion”), one chaplain contemplates “disorganized religion… I’d take the Ten Commandments from the Jewish faith, but I might not be able to keep them in their original order. I’d bow toward the east like the Muslims, but I might lean more toward Minot, North Dakota. Like Christians, we’d look for a Second Coming of the Messiah, but we’d hit the snooze button to wait for the second trumpet.”  Psychological research links religion with increased levels of self-control. So, does this make the whole disorganized thing more, or less, likely?  

In what is bound to be far more controversial research, a cluster of attitudes frequently associated with religious and political conservativism (hierarchy, resistance to chance, racism, bigotry) have also been correlated with lower intelligence scores. 

Don’t have Jedi powers yet?  Don’t worry, just purchase a Vodaphone.  But whatever you do, do NOT turn to the bark side.

You-Tube is said to be “raging” with responses to Jeff Bethke’s “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus,” video.

At the CCN religion blog, one writer predicts that Gingrich’s past marital woes will be no problem with Evangelical voters, and he was of course correct.  

Apparently, there are atheists in foxholes, and they want better protection of their freedom to disbelieve without harassment while serving in the armed forces.  

One writer for Skeptic magazine predicts the demise of Scientology. The primary factor?  The church’s growing inability to control information, control members, and intimidate critics in the age of online social media.  In Hollywood, CA, the local Scientology center offered invitations to come over and watch the NFL playoffs.  In Tampa Bay, visitors to the county fair were greeted by Scientology volunteers handing out self-help materials, and Scientology volunteers likewise participated in public celebrations of the MLK Jr. holiday.  

An emerging American subculture of “preppers” prepares for the apocalypse by stockpiling food, arms, ammunition, and survival supplies.

What does the apocalypse look like for surfing devotees?

In Arizona, some legislators seek to mandate high school courses that study the Bible and its influences upon Western culture in study, while banning ethnic studies (e.g., of Latino Americans especially) on college campuses.  

In North Carolina, one lawmaker hopes to bring back public executions by hanging, something the whole family could enjoy together (as happened at the last public hanging in America in 1936, which attracted some 20,000 spectators). More, he hopes to begin with abortion providers.  

In New York, the NYPD has been widely criticized for its overblown training film, intended to “educate” officers about Islam in America, “The Third Jihad.”

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University

Explore artistic renditions of Christ-figures blended with the extraterrestrial, technological, and trans-human.  Star Visitor theology, anyone?  A journalist ponders the odds of extraterrestrial encounters, arguing that UFO-based religions require as much faith as any other.  

Rev. Ed Young’s “24-hour live streaming online bed-in,” in which he and his wife discussed healthy Christian marriage and sex, ended in a minor eye injury.  With Young’s recent “sexperiment,” Marc Driscol’s new book about Christian sex, and a thriving Christian sex toy industry, some believe that Evangelicals have become overly preoccupied with the topic. 

Complaining that America has become a place where “school children are prohibited from wishing our troops Merry Christmas,” Rick Perry has called for a “next great awakening” making America “that shinning city of a hill” and sweeping away the social/political hegemony of secularists and liberals.  

For Muslim American Republicans, Ron Paul’s libertarian commitments make him the candidate of choice.   Among the next generation of American Muslims, religious careers (e.g., as imams) are emerging as a popular option.  

A day in the life of a lazy Jedi. 

Dudeism, “the slowest growing religion in the world,” boasts some 150,000 ministers worldwide. But one would-be Dudeist wonders “if a woman can really crack the Dudeist way. While I’ve met plenty of Dude-ish men over the years, many women, it seems, have trouble slacking off.” Indeed, this is a point Dudeists have pondered for some time now. 

In preparation for the NFL playoff game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos, a group of self-identified witches in Salem, MA gathered to “raise energy” and help the Patriots in their battle against Tim Tebow’s Christian magic.  After the Broncos’ crushing defeat, some Christians have begun to wonder whether it’s wise to hook religious faith to sports fandom.   

In Hungary, Wiccans, Pagans, and other religious minorities, are struggling against constitutional changes that delegitimize their traditions.   In North Carolina, expansive notions of “religious freedom” that entitle Christian religious organizations to bring their literature into public schools suddenly “vanish” when a Wiccan a mom shows up with a spell-book.  

One young rapper offers a You-Tube-futation of last week’s “Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus” video, 

while another offers a Muslim version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGqrzkFp_4

An Atheist’s defense of religion, Alain de Botton’s, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion, is critiqued as historically interesting but theologically shallow. 

If only 9% of Americans identify religion as “the most important thing in their life,” why is it so important in our politics?

An American Rabbi argues that 2012 is the year for “Occupy Religion,” since it, much like Wall Street, “does not work for enough people.”  In Israel, the question of ultra-conservative religion, the role of women, and the control of public spaces, may be reaching a crisis.

Tired of playing Angry Birds? Try Angry Brides, “a Facebook game in which you play an angry Indian wife who bludgeons her husband with frying pans and shoes,” wracking up “anti-dowry points.” Yes, it’s bizarre.

Or, to explore more fully the virtual genre of spousal abuse, check out Domestic Violence: The Video Game (which presumably teaches children not to engage in such behaviors).

In Nashville, TN, the local Church of Scientology is distributing its well-known “Way to Happiness” guide throughout the community, a book offering “21 precepts that point out that… without the survival of others, neither joy nor happiness is attainable.” Over the years, some 95 million copies have been handed out in 180 countries and 100 languages.

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University   

Imagine Evangelical Christians who reject militarism, consumerism, and cultural triumphalism, in favor of social justice, environmentalism, and religious reconciliation with other faiths. They might represent the coming norm.  If so, will these new Evangelicals distance themselves from religion?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

The future may be a ways off yet, as recent studies of American ministers note one major area of disagreement prevails: not creationism, nor the belief in the literal truth of the Bible, but whether or not the earth is 6,000 years old.    

In Texas, Rev. Ed Young, often known as the “sex preacher” because he urges married heterosexual Christian couples to have far more sex than they typically do (every day if possible), is offering (along with his wife) a full 24-hour discussion about healthy sexuality and marriage streamed live from a bed atop Rev. Young’s church.   

A skeptic considers the possibility that he is a “star-seed,”and a California psychotherapist offers a (free) online questionnaire designed to measure the degree to which human beings have been genetically and energetically “upgraded” by Star Visitors, and hence become star-seeds whether they know it or not.  

In Clearwater, Florida, after 13 years of planning and building, the Church of Scientology prepares to open its new $145 million, 377,000 square foot “Flag Mecca” building, where wealthy Scientologists will receive “infinite power.”

In Salem, Missouri, a local library has been slapped with a lawsuit after blocking patrons’ online access to Wiccan and Native American websites on the grounds that they constitute “occult” and therefore “criminal” sources of information. 

Young Christian celebrities, most notably Justin Bieber (sporting his new Jesus tattoo), Tim Tebow (with his unlikely win over the Pittsburg Steelers), and Demi Lovato (Disney star) may be making the Gospel cool for generation Z-ers.   Speaking of Tim Tebow, a new Japanese anime video would seem to have it all: terrible things done to Tebow, Jesus and Satan dueling on Xbox, NFL executives cynically cashing in on football/Christianity, and an Atheist running amok. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxF1VoJwFf4

The “countdown” to the Mayan apocalypse of 12/21/12 began on 12/21/11, and we’ve already had a Christian minister make a late-May rapture prediction (not Harold Camping).  So, if you’re stressing out about the upcoming apocalypses, try new Island Time, a “lightly carbonated relaxation product [that] uses melatonin, valerian root and rose hips to provide a relaxing effect,” specifically recommended for allaying end time anxieties. “As we get closer to the end of the world people are going to feel a lot more stress,” says Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Wealth Management in Stamford, CT, “people need to come to terms with the end of everything and the fact that they can’t do anything about it. [This drink] can’t save the world but it can make people more relaxed” about it!  And while you’re at it, put some Island Time on ice for the “annihilation of humanity” party slated for Friday December 21, at 11:10pm, and don’t forget to RSVP on Facebook!  

For hungry Jedi looking for guidance on their fast food journey, check out Darth Vader and Jedi Burgers.  Is the Jedi spiritual path poised to really take off in America, becoming a faith for everyone?  

Is American the Mecca of “make your own religion?”  

The National Atheist Party calls for “no government favoring support of religion,” though they have also taken positions on other issues such as “gay marriage (for it) gun control (tighten it), abortion (a woman’s decision), immigration (reform it), energy (green it), and the economy (legalize recreational drugs to create revenue and jobs).” So far, they have 7,500 hundred registered members and a chapter in all 50 US states.   While young Pakistanis have not quite arrived at this point in their politics, some are “adopting Atheism and openly questioning the existence of a God,” perhaps as a way of pushing back against “the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan as well as access to social media and other technological tools that allow people to share and explore new ideas.” Good luck with that.  

In West Virginia, the state government plans to invest gambling revenues in this year’s “Jesus Fest” celebration.  

In Great Britain, recent studies suggest that traditional religion may in fact be on its way out, with half of the adult population claiming no religious affiliation whatsoever, and over half of those who do identify as religious saying that they never attend religious services.

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University  

Do you think that information is holy, and that the practice of sharing it is tantamount to an act religious worship? If so, the new religion of Kopimism, whose holy symbols are those that suggest a desire to copy or be copied (e.g., “CTRL+C”), may be just what you’re looking for. According to the good news of Kopimism, all file-sharing should be made legal and copyright laws abolished, as both inhibit the free expression of religion.

It’s not just Evangelical Christians who are enjoying religiously approved sex toys at websites such as “holy hooking up,” but also Orthodox Jews  and Muslims in search of Kosher and Halal “marital aids.”  Apparently, it’s a rising part of a $15 billion a year industry.

Speaking of cosmically-themed sex, a sci-fi themed brothel is in the works for Las Vegas Nevada, replete with faux Carry Fishers and “Captain Kirk’s green alien lady friend” from the original Star Trek series. Yes, prostitution is legal in several US states, including Nevada.

Michelle Bachman has apparently re-thought God’s command (back in 2006) that she seek the presidency of the United States.  No fears, though, God has let Pat Robertson in on our political futures.

In an effort to repair his reputation, evangelical minister Ted Haggard plans to appear on ABC’s Celebrity Wife Swap.  On a serious note, it’s obvious that Evangelicals are fragmenting (for instance, by their inability to agree on a single conservative presidential candidate) but are they also shifting to more liberal positions on, for instance, unmarried couples living together, abortion, homosexuality?

Scientology may offer “space drama,” with tales of lost and wayward souls hailing from an ancient galactic civilization, but it also offers rather intense institutional dramas, as instanced by a recent email sent out to some 12,000 Church members by (former) Scientology insider Debbie Cook. As Janet Reitman explains, Cook “accused Scientology’s leadership of hoarding more than $1 billion in donations; spending lavishly on new churches; punishing former executives with draconian measures; and overselling Scientology books and services to members already stretched by high-pressure sales tactics.” And by the way, the Church of Scientology does celebrate Christmas, and in fact official Scientology teachings express reverence for the founders of most if the world’s religious traditions.

Recent sociological studies of American religious affiliation have brought to light sharp increases over the past twenty years in “nones,” those claiming “no religion,” amounting to as much as 15% of American adults. Much larger percentages, however, identify as “so whats?,” that is, as folk who spend no time seeking out eternal wisdom, worrying about whether they are going to heaven, or believe that God has a plan for their lives.

In some late Christmas-wars news, Claremont Methodist Church displayed a nativity scene featuring silhouettes of straight, gay, and lesbian couples holding hands. The gay and lesbian silhouettes were apparently assaulted, which has been classified as a hate crime by local police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6lB3P6Y2Lg

Do religious folk tend to have lower IQs? Some research may support this conclusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSa2zV–xw

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University  

Atheist bloggers turned out in force for a record-setting $180,000 in donations for  Doctors Without Borders, to which some Christians replied “thank God!”  Not bad for a widely distrusted minority (a new study suggests that many people have more faith in the ethics of rapists!)  While fighting Christianity, Atheists wonder whether they should be fighting Wiccans and Neo-Pagans as well. They are, after all, religious.

In Santa Monica, CA., where a lottery determined who would have access to “vandal-proof, cage-like areas surrounded by chain-link fencing” in which to place their public holiday displays, Atheists won 18 of 21 such spaces, with just two going to a coalition of churches, and one to a Jewish group.  

In New Jersey, American Atheists billboards suggest that “free thinkers’ can be found in every family, if we only bother to look.  Conservative Catholics have responded with an “adopt an atheist” campaign aimed at helping those suffering from atheism to “recover their inner [and no doubt Catholic] self.” 

 The Evangelical group, American Family Association, released its long awaited list of merchants said to be friendly to and hostile to Christianity. “The litmus test is whether retailers use ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ in their ads. The latter is considered offensive because it takes away the focus on Jesus…”  For some potentially real Christmas warfare, visit the South and North Korea’s DMZ, with its three steel Christmas trees, “adorned with lights and topped with crosses,” and surrounded by barbed-wire.   

In Long Island, New York, two high school students were suspended for “Tebowing” in the halls, deemed a safety hazard. 

In Omaha, Nebraska, Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups are coming together to form a 35-acre “tri-faith” campus.  

Lowe’s has removed its commercial spots from TLC’s “All American Muslim” after complaints by Christian anti-Muslim groups such as the Florida Family Association,  and a petition drive to smack down the retailing giant has already begun.  

For those weary of waiting for an image of Jesus to miraculously appear in their morning toast, $31.95 buys you a Jesus Toaster at Burnt Impressions.com, which turns out miracles on demand. “Press a button and save a couple of souls, Jesus!” Don’t wait, though, they’re selling 50-100 daily while supplies last.   

Some have tried to understand Newt Gingrich’s “war on Sharia,” his experimentation with various Christianities, and his Dickensian view of the poor.  For the first time in American history, voters in Republican presidential primaries may have to choose between two non-Protestant candidates, a Mormon (Romney) and a Catholic (Gingrich, assuming this lasts through the primaries).  

A Canadian judge has ruled that smoking marijuana is not a religious act, even if participants understand their practices in explicitly religious terms, for instance, as partaking of the “tree of life… to share a collective consciousness, which is an aspect of God… a common belief in countless mystical traditions.”

There’s a new Jedi Order in town, and their website offers links to a host of other Jedi communities and resources. More, the Jedi are showing up in larger numbers and in more places.  In the Czech Republic, for instance, where nearly half of the country’s 10.5 million residents are not affiliated with religion, some 15,000 have listed their religion as “Jedi Knight.” 

We all know there are UFO-based religious movements, but is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence itself a religion? Michael Crichton apparently thought so.   

The Church of Scientology recently celebrated “Human Rights Day” (the 63^rd anniversary of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights) “with seminars, rallies, concerts, round tables, forums and festivals… and more than 80 human rights walks in 26 countries…”  

Physicists say they are “hot on the trail” of the elusive (and some say non-existent) “God particle” (otherwise known as the Higgs Boson), which would allow cosmologists to explain why mass occurs in the universe, apparently an important variable.  

In what promises to make Egypt an international party Mecca, newly elected legislators have ruled that tourists must observe a “sin free” lifestyle during their stay: no alcohol, no bikinis, no men and women swimming together. Good times!

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University

Whereas last year’s atheist billboard at the Lincoln Tunnel, NJ was said to be overly direct (it told you that Christian stories were myths), this year’s is said to be so tame (they ask you whether they seem like myths to you), that Catholic leaders are not responding with a counter billboard of their own.  Don’t worry, a new and much more offensive billboard is in the works!  One Christmas display that did  provoke controversy was a crucified Santa skeleton.

Alec Guinness, the actor who played the Jedi Knight Obi wan Kenobi in the first three Star Wars films, apparently preferred other mystical imaginaries as well, that of 16^th century Christian mystics.

Atheists serving in the US military are starting to ask for, and may soon demand, atheist and humanist chaplains for their foxholes!

Rick Perry’s “I’m not ashamed” TV ad apparently did shame at least one Perry supporter,  and has inspired a number of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8sbBVOt40Q

parodies of Atheist  and Jewish varieties.

Ironically, Perry’s own holiday address to American soldiers in 2010 contained no references to Christmas or Jesus whatsoever.

BTW, Father Gabrielle Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, has ruled that the practice of yoga, like the Harry Potter films, is Satanic.

Speaking of religion and politics, folks at the Dudespaper somewhat incoherently slammed presidential hopeful, the Newt “Gingrinch Who Stole Christmas.”

40% of Americans have unfavorable views of Southern Baptists (and hence a change in the denomination’s name is likely).  Surprisingly, the denominations disapproval ratings are similar in the Bible Belt, that is, the South!

Are you considering joining, or rejoining, the Catholic family? Check out the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujKBJc_yMg

TV commercial “calling Catholics home.” The Bible, humanitarianism, saints and the scientific method. They’re pretty darn cool.

Looking for Atheism as well as Intelligent Design? Try the Raelians.  Eric Weiner did, along with a number of other religious communities in “Man Seeks God.”  An Iranian Raelian leader, after making her faith choices public, received asylum in the U.S.

The Apple office complex, which Steve Jobs described as “like a spaceship landed”, will feature, “a 45,000-square-foot fitness center, on-campus dining… an abundance of solar panels which will generate up to five megawatts of electricity for the campus… a grove of Cherry trees, Redwoods, Ash, Maples, and Gums — along with gardens and orchards [that] will inspire productive brainstorms, meditative breaks, rejection of the world outside the campus, an unflinching devotion to the cult…” that is, the company.

1 in 5 Atheists with children attend church, and Pagans are singing Christmas carols.  What’s the world coming to?

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By Kenny Smith, Emory University

As we approach the end of the year holidays, Public Display Wars have already begun, with one Virginia county offering public space to the first ten groups/persons to apply.  An interesting solution.  The result?  As one frustrated blogger writes, “Christmas displays gone mad”: a traditional nativity scene, a sign calling Christian figures “myths” another advertising for the American Atheist League, a cryptic holiday display of the “Tree of Knowledge,” a letter dictated by Jesus himself submitted by a local resident, a crucified Santa Claus, and two signs from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.   

Speaking of the holidays, check out Americans’ top-10 holiday dreads, for instance, having to be nice to others.  

Why do Evangelicals tend to believe such weird things, for instance, that the earth is relatively young, having been created just a few thousand years ago? One author tries to make sense of it all.   

As winter and government crackdowns on the OWS intensify, some churches open their doors to protestors.  More, a small but growing contingent of religious communities is pulling their money from Wall Street banks, angry at such institutions’ unwillingness to do much of anything to prevent foreclosures or lend money to small businesses.  

While a Kentucky church has banned inter-racial relationships among its members,  Jedi and Sith put their galactic differences aside to marry. 

Symbols from the popular film, V for Vendetta, such as the infamous Guy Fawkes’ mask, seem to be functioning religiously for different kinds of protestors?   

Raelians: the most fun of all religious folk!  Here’s why: they always strive for pleasure, they are all young and beautiful, and they will strip naked in public.  

In Europe, Raelians are appealing to an EU court to overturn legal bans on posters depicting star folk. 

An early fall Pagan-con saw considerable unity among a very diverse group of Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, Celtic Reconstructionists and Pagan Eclectics. In taking such unity considerably further, some hope to re-establish the American Council of Witches. The U.S. Air Force has officially recognized Pagans, Witches, and Druids, with new Pagan-friendly worship spaces for cadets.   

Looking for a Jedi Master to train your children,  or a Jedi Temple on Twitter?  

African American Atheists talk about the difficulties involved in “coming out” to friends and especially family. “We Are theism” campaign urges atheist folk generally to “come out.”  

Scientology continues to do well among celebrities, as Kelly Preston praises the Scientology-inspired weight-loss program, Organic Liaison, though meanwhile the Church is getting hammered in much of the mainstream press for some very disturbing charges, while also attracting the attention of some rap artists.    

If you’re worried about the end of the world arriving in 2012 because the Mayans predicted it, maybe it’s time to stop worrying.

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By Kenny Smith 

In an intriguing piece written for the Sunday, June 27 New York Times, journalist David Segal traces out some of the early consequences of President Obama’s October 2009 announcement that federal law enforcement will no longer prosecute users and suppliers of medical marijuana, provided they are in compliance with state laws. In Colorado, where a November 2000 amendment to the state constitution legalized medical usage, the grass-roots response has been immediate and potent:   

hundreds of [marijuana] dispensaries popped up and a startling number of residents turned out to be in “severe pain,” the most popular of eight conditions that can be treated legally with the once-demonized weed. More than 80,000 people here now have medical marijuana certificates, which are essentially prescriptions, and for months new enrollees have signed up at a rate of roughly 1,000 a day…. [In] cities like Boulder, an affluent, whole-grain kind of college town… the number of [marijuana] dispensaries… is larger than the number of Starbucks and liquor stores combined.  

What should we make of such a state of affairs? Surely some of these 80,000 cases involve severe physical distress. But aren’t many simply a matter of Coloradoans wanting to get high, a lot? Of course, even if this is in fact the case, it does not rule out the possibility that there are important religious dimensions at play. Getting high a lot might well perform important religious work. 

As the great scholar of religion Huston Smith pointed out some four decades past, that consciousness-expanding substances become intimately bound up with the sacred should hardly surprise us. Psychoactive compounds, albeit in varied forms, are indigenous to nearly every geographic region in which human civilization has flourished. Accidental ingestion, he argued (not uncontroversially), may have given rise to humankind’s first religious visions, doctrines, and traditions! (Smith, “Do Drugs Have Religious Import?,” The Journal of Philosophy, 1964) Indeed, many indigenous peoples, such as the Native American Church, continue costly legal battles with federal and state governments in an effort to regain (or preserve) their right to make use of sacred substances such peyote and cannabis.  

But we need not look to indigenous traditions. A number of new religious movements have come to see the ritual use of cannabis products as central the religious quest. The Church of the Universe, founded in Ontario, Canada in the late 1960’s, teaches that marijuana provides a vital “calming influence,” helps to focus and “direct [one’s] thoughts without interference from negative forces,” allows for an experience of communion with the natural world, and overall “makes life worth living.” http://www.iamm.com/belief.htm Though this group is not specifically Christian, some who are have likewise produced interesting blends of biblical spirituality and cannabis use, yielding a religious path that emphasizes “getting high for Christ.” The Religion of Jesus Church, founded in Hawaii (also in the late 1960’s), holds that the sacred ingestion of cannabis, 

fosters the… personal experience in knowing and doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood…. Through his indwelling spirit of truth and idealistic beauty, the Prince of Peace is able to be your personal spiritual life partner showing you the ideal way of living as you tread the pathway of spiritual growth…. Such is the religion of Jesus.  

More recently, in the 1990’s Reverend Roger Christie founded the THC Ministry: Hawaii Cannabis Ministry. In addition to helping congregants develop a biblically-grounded “Cannabis Spirituality,” this group also “helps to protect you from arrest, prosecution and/or conviction of ‘marijuana’ charges–wherever you live–starting as soon as you sign-up, become ordained and receive your ministry documents.” Membership is free. Applicants need only “be over 21 and sincere.” http://www.thc-ministry.org/  In the summer of 2010, Christie hopes to plant new Cannabis Christian Ministries across the U.S., beginning (of course) in Colorado Spring, Colorado.

Like all religious communities, these groups interpret their inherited religious resources in ways that reflect their most basic commitments, which in this case means the centrality of cannabis.  According to Christie, “what did Moses do after kneeling by the burning bush? He smoked it… Moses was healed by the burning bush,” which is said to be one of many biblical references to sacred weed.  As the scholar of Chinese religion, Jonathan Herman, has often remarked, “it does not matter so much what scripture says; what matters is how it is interpreted.” And our most important commitments typically constitute the lens through which we read scripture. This helps to explain why scriptures yield such varied interpretations, each of which seem self-evident to those who support them.

Setting aside for the moment admittedly unusual religious groups, could legalized cannabis come to function in ways comparable to other culturally sacred substances ritually consumed each day in the workaday world or with family and friends at dinner parties, picnics, baseball games, and holiday celebrations, such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Marlboro, MacDonalds, or Starbuck’s coffee? For at least some persons and communities, one suspects this is already the case, and that the economic dynamics of further legalization efforts will only serve to broaden the ways in which cannabis products manifest within the larger culture. As Segal explains,

Americans spend roughly $25 billion a year on marijuana… which gives some idea of the popularity of this drug. Eventually, we might be talking about a sizable sum of tax revenue from its sales as medicine, not to mention private investment and employment. A spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says hedge fund investors and an assortment of financial service firms are starting to call around to sniff out opportunities.

Currently, thirteen other states (such as Rhode Island and New Jersey), as well as the District of Columbia, have already passed medicinal marijuana laws and are poised to initiate dispensary programs similar to that in Colorado. Given the longstanding connection between economics and the sacred within American cultural history, it is worth taking seriously the possibility that, with widespread economic success and increased availability on the horizon, cannabis may well become a sacred reality for a great many Americans, putting down roots alongside baseball, apple pie, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Starbuck’s and (after a good case of the munchies) more apple pie.

See Religion Nerd article by Heather Abraham: Cannabis Cafes of Amsterdam

Sources

• David Segal’s article in NY Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/business/27pot.html?ref=todayspaper
• Religion of Jesus Church: http://www.hialoha.com/konagold/church/sacrament.html
• http://www.gazette.com/articles/expand-100645-burning-hopes.html
• http://www.gazette.com/articles/expand-100645-burning-hopes.html

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By Kenny Smith

Holy Smoke.com, a company owned and operated by “good Christians, with good moral values… offers to load the cremains [cremated remains] of customers into shotgun shells, rifle cartridges and bullets,” from which they may then be fired by fellow hunters and gun-enthusiasts. “I will rest in peace,” one company spokesperson said, “knowing that the last thing that turkey will see is me screaming at him at about 900 feet per second.” Discounts are available for the military, police and firemen. Yes, they’re serious.

A new study suggests that Atheists are the most despised group in America: “when Americans were asked whether they would disapprove of a child’s wish to marry an atheist, 47.6% of those interviewed said yes. This is a significantly higher percentage than Muslims (32.5%), blacks (27.2%), Jews (11.5%), conservative Christians (6.9%).J

Much as happened in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand in recent years, as the Hungarian census approaches, the number of Jedis is on the increase; Jediism may be the fastest growing religious minority in the country!  Been working on your light-saber skills?  Test your powers in the new Hasbro light-saber competition. Jedi Masters, as well as Sith Lords, are said to be welcome.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhtMcJXf1Pc

Some conservative Christian fear a rise in vampire and werewolf-related crime in light of films such as Twighlight.  

In charging Wall Street with “idolatry,” protestors marched bearing a biblical golden calf.   Christian “students, seminarians, and laypeople” are joining the Occupy Wall Street movement. More, are there religious themes emerging here that have little to do with churches?

The Presidential Prayer Team, praying for chief executives “since September 2001,” hopes to redeem, and defeat, Barack Obama.  Whereas the torments of hell played a major role in Catholic teachings in earlier decades, over the past fifty years this has changed significantly.  Evangelical teachings may insist upon “waiting for marriage before sex,” Evangelicals are “having premarital sex at about the same rate as everybody else.”  According to Harold Camping, of this year’s failed May 21, 2011 “end times” prophecy, the end will come by Oct. 21.  

Self-styled “Goths” who like to dress up in macabre attire and photograph one another beside gravestones, have been banned from a church cemetery in England.

In a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, a Church of Scientology school has drawn criticism from local residents.  In western Oregon, a Scientology boarding school calls itself the “Real-World Hogwarts,”  and specializes in rather unusual approaches to education.  Among the stars in America… Katie Holmes reports giving birth without making a sound, apparently in accordance with Church teachings…Johnny Depp attended Scientology meetings for the extra cash while still a struggling actor….and Lucy Liu is fascinated by many religions, including Scientology

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By Kenny Smith

Dr. Kelly J. Baker is a lecturer in Religious Studies and Americanist Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Seemingly indefatigable, she has written for numerous academic and popular publications, has two additional books and several scholarly articles currently in the works, serves an editor for the award-winning American Religious History blog, oversees panels and groups within the American Academy of Religion and American Studies Association, all the while teaching a full-load of university-level courses each semester, raising a young daughter, and encouraging aspiring graduate students at other institutions.

A glance at her resume suggests a broad range of teaching and research interests: world religions in America, apocalyptic and Rapture-oriented movements, the figure of the zombie in contemporary culture, religious intolerance in the South Park series, and of course, the early 20^th century rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and its relationship to “mainstream” American religion and culture, precisely the focus of her new book, Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930  (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011, 326 pages). 

Like all good historical work, this book complicates our understanding of the past, and thus also the present, by bringing to light previously overlooked and under-appreciated narratives. Specifically, Baker explores the print and material culture of the early 20^th century Klan: for instance, Klan newspapers such as the Imperial Night-Hawk and the Kourier Magazine, Klan robes and hoods, photographs of Klan initiations and gatherings, etc.. Most historical accounts, she explains, present the early 20^th century Klan as an extremist movement driven solely by concerns for racial and nationalistic purity, to the obvious and often brutal exclusion of African Americans, Catholics, and Jews. Thus the Klan appears as a paramilitary organization on the margins of mainstream American society, one that had little to do with the dominant religion of the time other than the coincidental affiliation of virtually all Klan participants with one Protestant denomination or another. When we take seriously what Klan leaders and spokespersons actually said, wrote, and did, however, a very different portrait emerges. 

The Klan’s political philosophies and practices, Baker argues, were inseparable from their Protestant Christianity. It is not simply the case that Klan leaders made use of Christian symbols and language, but rather that Klan philosophies and activities were predicated upon their understandings of the biblical text and the Protestant tradition. This is evident in what Klan leaders wrote (e.g., that “As the Star of Bethlehem guided the wise men to Christ, so it is that the Klan is expected more and more to guide men to the right life under Christi’s banner” 35), in what they wore (robes featuring crosses), and the rituals they enacted (e.g., erecting crosses, lining up in the form of a cross, reading the biblical text as a mandate for racial purity and superiority). 

More, Baker argues that the Klan is best understood not as vigilantes on the fringes of the social order, but as articulating (and implementing) what the majority of white Americans accepted as obviously the case.  As Baker demonstrates, the Klan was a broad, demographically and geographically diverse social, political, religious movement that competed, to some degree successfully, for a central position in the national consciousness and mainstream culture.

In helping to tease out this relationship, Baker points to the modern-day case of the Rev. Terry Jones, who in recent years garnered considerable media attention for threatening to burn (and then actually burning) a Qur’an in public. While a relatively small percentage of Americans will themselves publicly burn Qur’ans or join groups that do, studies consistently suggest that Jones’ attitudes toward Muslims reflect the opinions of large portions of the American public. Like Jones’ hatred of Islam, the Klan’s attitudes were mainstream, not marginal. 

Perhaps most controversially, the book’s final chapters explore the cultural legacy of the Klan as a “brand or style of religious nationalism,” and inquire as to its relationship to 21^st century forms of American conservativism, especially as it appears in the rhetoric of Glenn Beck and the Tea Party.  Baker acknowledges that “[b]inding people and movements to the Klan is an effective tool to showcase nefarious intentions and legacies,” and thus should be done with considerable caution. (263)  Still, there are important historical continuities. Beck and many in the Tea Party, she points out, express a distinctly Christian nationalism that seems bent upon the exclusion or marginalization of religious/cultural others, and the desire of much media coverage to paint Beck and the Tea Party as located on the fringes of American society recapitulates our long-standing assumptions about Klan history. 

I have called Gospel According to the Klan a brave new book. This is so for two important reasons. Firstly, Baker has exposed something about American cultural history that many of us may not wish to see: namely, that both religion and mainstream society participate in the ugly, even violent, side of American nationalism. To reveal this in a clear, detailed, and sustained argument can provoke precisely this ugliness.  As Baker explains in the book’s afterword,

I received my first death threat for [while writing for the American History Blog] simply suggesting that Americans need to recognize the place of Christianity and religion more generally in domestic terrorism and the larger hate movement. (252)

Secondly, Baker has also exposed something unpleasant about the rest of us, those who do not concur or sympathize with Terry Jones and feel repulsed by exclusionary religious nationalism (Christian or otherwise): namely, that we have a tendency towards forgetfulness, and towards imagining American history and the American mainstream in ways that reflect our own preferences.  

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By Kenny Smith

The Church of Scientology’s ($90 million) Super Power Building, which some describe as “a bizarre cross between a Mediterranean-style hotel and the Starship Enterprise,” offers some “889 rooms, an indoor running track and NASA-style training equipment,” where devotees will master super-human abilities, opens later this year.

Looking for Scientological romance? Check out the Scientology dating website that is said to speak especially to the sensibilities of Scientologists, which may not be so different after all.  Kristie Alley’s conversion to Scientology played a role in her weight-loss victory, and a new Scientology video urges a “crusade” of funding for new and improved Scientology centers worldwide!

A recent faculty hire in Cultural Anthropology at Auburn University specializes in UFOs, and most especially the International Raelian Religion.

While it’s unclear how Vampire Churches (yes, they exist) will react, apparently both John Travolta and Nicholas Cage are vampires dating back at least to the Civil War, and photographs (now for sale on EBay for some $50,000, though with free gift wrapping and shipping) prove it!

BTW, as some astute observers have pointed out, the photographs bear other explanations as well: Travolta and Cage may be time-travelers instead of, or as well as, vampires.

In a recent fundraiser, we learned that “Jesus Christ is Lord” and that “Obama is the anti-Christ.” The President himself agreed with the first assertion.

In Portland, Oregon, the “Oaks Amusement Park” will be hosting this year’s Pagan Pride Day.  In some libraries, it’s still difficult to keep books about Wicca and Witchcraft on the shelf.

In England, some Christian have complained (bitterly) over the BBC’s decision to use “BCE” and “CE” rather than “BC” and “AD” in making historical references.

All across America, the appeal of an Atheistic identity is flourishing, with or without highway billboard campaigns.

In Ohio, churches have purchased pro- and anti-homosexuality advertising space on numerous roadside billboards.

Was Steven Colbert correct? Are Americans Moneytheists?

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By Kenny Smith and Heather Abraham

Wiccans and Neo-Pagans of all sorts celebrate Mabon this September 23 (or there about), a celebration of the fall harvest and the Autumn Equinox, a day in which the hours of day and night are perfectly balanced, and just one day after the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins!  Looking for a primer on Wiccan/Pagan holidays?

Rob Bell, the controversial Christian minister whose book, Love Wins, published earlier this year questions some basic conservative ideas, for instance, that heaven is not a Christians-only club, strikes out on his own.  Elsewhere in Christendom, one Southern Baptist leader argues that state executions are “pro-life.”   Presidential candidate, Tea Party leader, and Evangelical, Michele Bachman, who now argues that the US government should have no tax revenues whatsoever, has self-identified as a Teavangelical.   Perhaps not surprisingly, the Southern Baptist Convention is considering a re-branding with a new and perhaps less insular… name.  

A federal judge has ruled that two film makers, who in 2005-2006 claimed that the Raelian International Religion  recruited members by virtue of pedophilia, in fact fabricated the story entirely.   

While Buddhist “flashmobs” gather for meditation in cities around the world, Jewish ones gather for shofar blowing. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaT90wjU4Q

The FBI has been criticized for it’s training materials that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as “a cult leader,”  and the Air Force Chief of Staff has warned officers to avoid promoting and expressing preferential treatment for their own personal religious beliefs. 

One fellow attempts an experiential comparison of demonic exorcism.  This is probably not your religious studies professors’ idea of a comparative study.

The Church of Scientology encounters yet more troubles, as mainstream media pick up recent accusations of the “violent and toxic” nature of its leader, David Miscavige. Elsewhere, Scientology Church schools receive far more positive coverage.  

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has announced that beginning in 2015, Saudi born women will be allowed to vote and run as candidates.  The announcement came just days before this year’s elections in which women are excluded.  Women can vote….just not yet.  

Actor Gerard Butler, a consummate warrior of film, takes on the lead role in “Machine Gun Preacher.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25sM_72wEBI

The film challenges American Christians get off their comfortable asses and to think globally while giving new meaning to gun carrying Christians.  “Apostle of Violence?”  

Another of God’s warriors, Andrew Marin, is working to bridge the gap between the conservative Christian right and the GLBT community.   

Bay Minette, Alabama judges are giving those convicted of misdemeanors the choice between serving jail time or attending church.  Christianity is the only option available to those who want to opt out of jail.  Christian and non Christian criminals, who choose to participate, will have to report to the local pastor and police for an entire year.  The ACLU is in an uproar calling Bay Minette’s Restore Our Community Program “blatantly unconstitutional.” 

“We’re not there to burn the Bible or desecrate,” said Bruce Gleason, director of Backyard Skeptics atheist group, who recently gathered in Huntington Beach to rip up pages of the bible they feel are immoral.    The self styled “Atheist Athlete” created a video to capture the event at which he had “a lot of fun” and where he “got hugs” from attendees.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS5jmf5bav8

 Brad Hirschfield explores “When Atheism Turns Ugly,” in his Washington Post On Faith article.   While Christians and Atheists battle it out on the boardwalk, Jewish Atheists flock to welcoming Synagogues.   

The Jewish High Holy Days are upon us and some Synagogues are worrying about “The Hard Economics Of High Holy Days.”

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By Kenny Smith

A Dudeist painter, inspired by classical Western artistic traditions, works to capture the spiritual complexities of the Dude and his companions.

Despite the fact that even university-level courses in world religions often leave out discussion of the centuries-old tradition of Sikhism. There are some half-million American Sikhs, some of which experienced violent reprisals after 9/11, being mistaken for Muslims.  

Evangelical protestors confronted “drunk and immodestly dressed” Vanderbilt undergraduates, beseeching them to “put on some clothes and repent of their idolatry and fortification” as “no drunkard will enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj93hbI-Xno

Would you like to “friend” Jesus? Check out Jesus Daily, among the most frequented Facebook pages religious or otherwise.   

Americans may obsess about Big Government, but one scholar contemplates the emergence and implications of Big Religion, as evidenced by, say, Presidential candidate Rick Perry’s totalizing “Day of Prayer,” at which “everyone was welcome to come” and be Christian.  

The new Christian film “Seven Days in Utopia,” featuring Robert Duvall and True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby, without the fangs), is fairing well with Christian fans.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uR3BXN9ybk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhAKzYr4-wg

cheers applauds the banning of religion (they say it’s satire but I’m not entirely convinced),  while the French really have banned prayer in public streets.  

A new book by Ohio State scholar Hugh Urban locates the Scientology in its historical context, and receives a more cordial welcome from the Church.

One self-identified Satanist contests popular definitions of his tradition equating Satanism with “average selfish douches.” This tradition is about the power, control, and having what’s essential, he suggests. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_849l2EXac

Some American Muslims, apparently, support legal efforts to ban Sharia law.  

A new form of Buddhism, with 11 million adherents in South Korea, is coming to the US.  

Is America headed for 310 million people with 310 different religions?

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By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin

In a recent piece for CNN’s religion blog, “Actually, that’s not in the Bible,” John Blake examines the ubiquity of “phantom scripture” in American Christian communities. By “phantom scripture” he means ideas, teachings, and passages that sound like they belong in the Bible–e.g., “This too shall pass,” “God helps those who help themselves,” “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” or the notion that it was Satan (rather than a serpent) who tempted Eve in the Garden–but which, upon “close” (i.e., scholarly) examination, are in fact not there at all. A mild deconstruction of Blake’s discussion, I hope to suggest, opens up important pedagogical insights.

By way of getting at such insights, consider a somewhat parallel example. In my undergraduate “introduction to religion” course, students watched a documentary about the “Purity Balls” movement popular among some contemporary American evangelicals (typically expressed in elaborate, celebratory, yearly rituals in which young girls pledge to abstain from sexual intercourse until marriage and fathers pledge to “cover” their daughters with protection and care). In the course of this documentary, one participant explained that, because “Do Not Have Sex Before Marriage” is one of the 10 Commandments, and is important to God, it should be important to us.

Biblical scholars, Blake tells us, are typically quick to dismiss such innovative exegetical accounts. “It is a great Protestant tradition,” he writes, ”for anyone – milkmaid, cobbler, or innkeeper – to be able to pick up the Bible and read for herself. No need for a highly trained scholar or cleric to walk a lay person through the text…. You can see this manifest today in living room Bible studies across North America where lovely Christian people, with no training whatsoever, drink decaf, eat brownies and ask each other, ‘What does this text mean to you?’… Not only do they get the interpretation wrong, but very often end up quoting verses that really aren’t there.”

My problem with this line of reasoning is that both scholarly and popular/religious understandings of the Bible are the discursive products of particular knowledge-creating strategies. For both traditions, “the Bible” represents a hermeneutically constructed imaginary. What’s in your Bible? That will depend greatly upon the interpretive strategies you employ. If that strategy is embedded within the academic discipline of biblical studies, your interpretive moves are likely to be constrained by demands for historical and linguistic evidence. If it derives from the Protestant religious culture Blake describes, then your Bible might say just about anything, and chances are it will speak to your deepest interests and concerns. Of course, academically generated imaginaries (which I personally prefer and professionally rely upon) have a great deal to offer, for instance, if we wish to understand what biblical stories might have meant to those who told them and heard them within their original historical context. Still, I would resist the move from “the academic study of religion offers a kind of knowledge” to “it offers the only kind of knowledge,” a move which Blake’s discussion tacitly naturalizes and obscures.

The pedagogical insights I promised? There are at least two. To begin with, the conclusions we reach are mightily shaped by the knowledge-making strategies we select and the interpretive traditions to which we belong, and thus it’s crucial to be aware of when and upon what grounds we’re making methodological decisions. Secondly, that an intellectual endeavor of social import such as the academic study of religion has both much to offer intellectually as well as significant epistemic and even existential limitations, and thus should be neither accepted without question nor rejected out of hand, may prove to be one of the better insights we might pass on, as much that undergrads will encounter in life will fall along similar evaluative lines.

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Originally published September 16, 2011 on Religion Bulletin

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By Kenny Smith

Looking for a complex symbol to decode, demystify, and historicize?  The new and improved Statue of Liberty should keep you busy for some time.  

The emergence of explicitly religious traditions from popular Hollywood images continues apace, this time with the Church of Harry Potter, where “we believe in the words of wisdom from all characters in the books of Harry Potter.” Speaking of Hollywood-generated images, a new book by Elaine A. Heath, The Gospel According to Twilight: Women, Sex and God offers a thoughtful critique of the gendered theological and social messages offered in the Twilight series: interesting theology, but unfortunate gender blueprints, she seems to say.  

In Florida, Pastor Mike Stahl argues for the mandatory registration of all atheists with state authorities, just as convicted sex offenders are publicly monitored.   In Ohio, atheists were blamed for a billboard announcing, “There Is No God!,” though in fact it was paid for by a local minister. 

A very small but growing number of conservative American Roman Catholics, it seems, have concluded that Galileo was wrong and the medieval church correct: the earth, not the sun, they say, lies at the center of the universe, and the Bible proves it.  

What was once the sad fate of nerds (e.g., computers and comic books), one author argues, now dominates American culture as its “secular religion.”  Speaking of which: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT16DcHcjRA

forth, meet the gods, transcend death, wear Levis!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT16DcHcjRA

Feel like getting religious about your financial debt as well your Levis, though in a more sectarian manner? Check out Christian Loan Consolidation, because “God really does want you to be free” economically speaking, as well as saved.  

In Alabama (yes, Alabama) the Church of Scientology Disaster Response hosted a dinner and ceremony to recognize those who have come to Alabama to assist in relief and rebuilding efforts following this past Spring’s devastating tornado outbreaks.  The dinner was, apparently, attended by several other religious organizations, Adventist, Catholic, Mennonite, and Lutheran, among others.  In Australia, the Church of Scientology may be forced to pay its employees years of allegedly overdue back-pay and subsequent taxes on those payments, a move that could “bankrupt” the Australian Church.  Scientology’s Freedom magazine is fighting back against what it perceives as unfair treatment by the New Yorker by issuing its own parody of the world-famous magazine.  

Some have argued that the recent riots in London show the need for more religion (of the conservative variety, one suspects) in the world. Hmmmm…. 

Despite heavy government surveillance, many Muslim Americans report feeling “very satisfied” with their lives in America, and continue to think in very moderate (that is, non-radicalized) terms. 

For a highly imaginative history of Satan watch this YouTube video.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTcF-7opGLU

At Playland, a New York amusement park, a “scuffle” or “riot” (depending upon whose version one accepts) ensued, to which local police apparently responded en masse, when female Muslim customers were banned from a ride due to their “headgear.”  

“Go Topless Day” demonstrations came to Asheville, N.C. last week, with plenty of faithful “wearing the Raelian swastika/Star of David emblem on chains around their necks,”  and evangelical counter-protestors denouncing the protestors as “pagan,” to which it was argued, “Pagans go around naked”; we’re just topless.   While many find Raelian philosophy to be ridiculous, the issue of who gets to go-topless and where is actually garnering attention as a social issue.

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By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin

Towards the end of her fine essay in Mark C. Taylor’s Critical Terms for Religious Studies, Margaret R. Miles distinguishes between icons used in some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodox) and the images of contemporary film. The latter, she argues, “function iconically” only when “viewers augment the image[s]… imagin[ing] how it would feel to be in the protagonist’s situation… the smells, the tastes, the touch the film character experiences… Moreover, Christians who use icons gaze at the same image again and again; most people see a film only once, though some people see a few films again and again.”

With respect to a great many Hollywood-generated images, Miles’ point is well taken: perhaps they typically do not “function iconically,” as her terminology would have it. But this situation may be shifting in important ways. As noted in a range of recent accounts, sites associated with contemporary films–such as the “life-size” statue of Jedi Master Yoda (pictured above) at Lucasfilm Studios beside the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco–are becoming important travel destinations for growing numbers. Increasingly, it seems, Americans (and folk from other nations as well) want to be in such places and to do those things that allow them to draw closer to beloved images.

Indeed, the range of (ritual?) performances at such sites is remarkable. Those who visit the Yoda statue may, for instance, bring their children who have “been raised on the Star Wars films,” hoping that they might “absorb Yoda’s teachings… through sheer proximity to the statue.” They may also visit other geographical locations where various scenes from the films were shot, such as Luke Skywalker’s childhood desert home (Tunesia), the salt flats over which R2D2 roamed (Death Valley), the forests through which Luke raced with Imperial Storm Troopers (Northern California), or be married where Padme and Anakin were married (Lake Como, Italy).

Nor is it exclusively images from the Star Wars genre that have received imitative performances. The Mansfield State Penitentiary and the surrounding town of Mansfield, Ohio, were Shawshank Redemption (1994) was filmed, have witnessed the emergence of a cottage industry catering to those who want to walk through Shawshank’s cells, be married in its courtyard, crawl through the faux sewage tunnel through which Tim Robbins’ character made his escape, or find the oak tree under which Morgan Friedman’s character discovered a secret message, map, and money left for him.

For someone interested in the emergence of new religious movements, this mode of social production becomes especially interesting when we think about how far might it come to extend.  Could the vast institutional (Christian and otherwise) religious mainstream (in America and elsewhere) come to explicitly incorporate transnationally-distributed Hollywood images that are already “functioning iconically”?  While this may strike many observers as entirely too “far out,” it is worth remembering -to return to Star Wars as one among many possible examples-that Jediist churches, orders, temples, academies, and so forth are flourishing in a variety of Western societies (e.g., Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the U.S.). We also have seen the explicit blending of Jedi-Christian and Jedi-Islamic traditions, and popular resources offering other possible syntheses (e.g. books like The Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters). The suggestion here is not that Jedi or other Hollywood images might come to dominate mainstream expressions as something imposed from without, but rather that they might come to infiltrate them from within, exerting a hermeneutical Force that could be with us religiously as well as cinematically.

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This article first published by  Religion Bulletin