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Scientology Porn

ann — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:44:25 +0000

One hardly knows what to say about Emily Anne Epstein's very brief article and photo series in last week's Metro, the free paper handed out at the dark mouth of another day's underground commute. But maybe that's the point. Epstein makes Scientology -- and the New York "flagship" center on 46th Street -- sound a lot like porn (and not just of the real estate variety): you'll find it around Times Square; it's gaining adherents all the time; it's got big and easy money; and it invokes just enough of that under-belly controversy to keep your interest. What's more, there's a sauna for when you're "looking for something else." If the Scientologists invited Epstein for a visit to get some alluring PR, check and check. (h/t Abby Ohlheiser)

Our Daily Links — Oprah Was Raptured?

ann — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:27:26 +0000

Everyone's favorite tween, Justin Bieber is fresh off a visit to Israel and was seen this week sporting a new tattoo that reads "Yeshua," or Jesus, in Hebrew. Baylor University Press has published a new book, The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia, that is being called a tool for promoting religious intolerance and a harbinger of greater social and political unrest. Scalia's called last week's SCOTUS decision, Brown v. Plata, "the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history." The ruling grants that prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights must be respected. It would be dangerous to put a Mormon in the White House. There's been a lot of press about the end of Oprah's show this month (and her brand of faith) but little answer to the question of why she's ended it. The Revealer's heard from a semi-reliable source that Oprah was raptured. (h/t Genevieve Yue)

Christian Movies and Representational Politics

ann — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:11:50 +0000

From Andrew O’Hehir’s review at Salon of “Soul Surfer”: If evangelical Christians want to see their life and faith and values reflected on-screen, I guess that’s understandable. But movies are not mirrors, and the mass audiences that went to see “The King’s Speech” or “Black Swan” or “The Social Network” didn’t necessarily identify with the characters or their lifestyles. Although the prehistory of Christian cinema goes back several decades — the Campus Crusade for Christ film “Jesus” played mainstream theaters in 1979 — with the solitary exception of Gibson’s gruesome and visionary “Passion of the Christ” the genre hasn’t evolved past the most tedious stage of message-delivery and representational politics. (Insert joke here about Christians and evolution.) At the risk of offending many people in many different directions, Christian cinema reminds me of gay cinema. If, that is, gay cinema were permanently stuck in 1986, with a self-ghettoizing mandate to present positive role models for youth and tell an anodyne but uplifting story that sends a message of hope. (h/t Abby Ohlheiser)

Brown is Brown

ann — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:44:14 +0000

Far be it from us to support gay-bashing, censorship or breaking the law, ahem, but this little piece from the increasingly paranoid Examiner does a fine job of equating all travelers from Mexico to San Diego as terrorists of one kind or another:

The Los Angeles Times reported on January 27, 2011 that Tunisian-born imam Said Jaziri was arrested earlier this month near San Diego while trying to illegally enter the country. Jaziri is known for leading protests in Canada against the famous Danish Mohammed cartoons; for proclaiming homosexuality a disease; and for spending time in a French prison for assaulting another Muslim. News reports do not indicate that Jaziri is a proponent of violent Islamism; but his arrest reminds us that porous borders are dangerous, because not only Mexicans just seeking work are illegal aliens. (See “Hezbollah smuggling people into U.S. through Mexico.”

(h/t Abby Ohlheiser)

Haitian Spirits: A Photo Essay by Les Stone

ann — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:38:59 +0000

introduction and curation by Abby Ohlheiser

Badjo, Haiti (2011)

They’re women and men (but mostly women) bathed in light, bathed in water, eyes to the sky, some touching and wearing crosses. They’re possessed by spirits, dancing on dirt floors, fire in their mouths. Vodou in Haiti is like Catholicism, but not. Karen Brown wrote in her evocative book, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, that “Vodou Spirits, unlike the Catholic saints whose names they borrow, are characters defined by contradiction. The Vodou spirits represent the powers at work in and on human life. The wholeness of the spirits – their ability to contain conflicting emotions and to model opposing ways of being in the world – gives Vodou its integrity as a religion.” Vodou reaches many Americans through heavy mediation: Voodoo and the ubiquitous dolls in TV and film, and zombies, for instance. Evangelical Christians might talk of Haiti as a place where the Devil is palpable, portraying Vodou as the boogeyman of world religions. Les Stone goes to Haiti and photographs Vodou. He’s been doing so since 1987. The photographs selected here, many of which were taken in the year after the earthquake, speak to that contradiction Brown identifies in the Vodou spirits. And in them, how Vodou has been portrayed as “other” becomes unrecognizable. While the images are striking and somehow strange, the scenes are also, in surprising ways, oh-so familiar.

The peristyle, inner sanctum of the hounfor, at Badjo, Haiti (2011).

A Kongo ceremony with drumming, Gonaives (2011).

The mud or silt pool in Plaine Du Nord. Pilgrims come to the pool to seek the protection of Lwa Ogun, the deity or spirit of fire, metal, strength and power. Represented in Catholic iconography as St. James the Elder, Ogun lives in the pool. "The pool, a mystical place, becomes the theater for individual and collective fits of possession." (1994)

"It is often compulsive and overwhelming but it can also be calm, joyful or theatrical." (1994)

Ghede or Day of the Dead, Gonaives (2010).

St. Yves, a pilgrimage in the south of Haiti (2008).

St. Yves pilgrimage (2010).

Neg Danhonmen Souvenance, outside Gonaives, at Easter-time celebrates the kingdom of Dahomey (which is now Benin), the mythical home of Haitians (2010).

Fet Ghede, the Day of the Dead, Gonaives (2010).

"After the sacrifice of a goat, she fell into a deep trance and cried for close to an hour." (1996)

Pase Poul A healing ceremony; impurities and bad spirits are transferred to the chicken by brushing it on the patient's body. The doctor then twists the chicken's head in his mouth until it is severed (1994).

Souvenance, 2010

Les Stone, who’s been a photographer for more than 25 years, lives in the Catskills, New York. He’s photographed New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, Iraq after the invasion, Vietnam after Agent Orange, and Panama after Noriega. His images and more information can be found at www.lesstone.com. Contribute to his kickstarter book campaign here. Abby Ohlheiser is a journalist and graduate student at NYU’s Religion and Journalism program.

Mormon, Schmormon

ann — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:41:25 +0000

Things we love about the new Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll on “Mormons in America?” So glad you asked: Substitute your own word in here: ”Many _____ feel they are misunderstood, discriminated against and not accepted by other Americans as part of mainstream society.” “Two-thirds (68%) [of Mormons] say the American people as a whole do not see Mormonism as part of mainstream society.” This while the leading GOP candidate is Mormon (poll conducted October and November of last year). Define Christian: 97% of Mormons say Mormonism is a Christian religion. Only 51% of non-Mormons do. “73% say working to help the poor is essential to be a good Mormon” What’s morally wrong? Polygamy (86%), Sex between unmarried adults (79%), having an abortion (74%), drinking alcohol (54%), and divorce (25%) ** An excerpt from Revealer Abby Ohlheiser’s post at Slate today: Reflecting Romney’s struggles to gain the confidence of the Evangelical vote as the primary season progresses, the survey found that while Mormons are actually pretty similar to Evangelicals politically (they’re much more conservative and Republican than the general population) and, in some ways, religiously there’s some mutual tension between the two groups. One-half of Mormons surveyed indicated that Evangelical Christians are generally unfriendly toward Mormons. Maybe that’s why Romney has kept discussion of his faith to a minimum in his fight for the GOP nomination. ReligionLink’s “extensive guide to issues regarding Mormons” is here. From Gawker’s “You’re All Just Jealous of Mitt Romney” about the GOP presidential candidate’s recent morning show interview: Matt Lauer, in a fine line of questioning yesterday, pressed Romney on the way he’s started labeling attacks on his record at Bain as based on “envy.” That is strange, isn’t it, that instead of trying to explain his role in financial capitalism as good for the American worker in the long-term — a tough job, but his only real way out of this! — he’s just resorted to dismissing people as jealous that he cleaned up so well and gets to boil a steak for breakfast everyday. From the Washington Post’s On Belief blog which states that the poll “will certainly fuel the ogling debate about the so-called “Mormon moment” and whether Mormons have become a part of the American religious mainstream”:

Weird Waves are the New Heat Waves

ann — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:13:39 +0000

Abby Ohlheiser: It’s not global warming, it’s global weirding, according to a Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) article, prophetically published last Friday to ready us for today’s choking heat along the East Coast. CBN has recently published a series of articles (read here, here and here) rekindling doubt in the evidence for global warming. In doing so, CBN is building an argument against the idea that human action can change the Earth’s climate. There’s a godly element to that. There’s also a business one. The main scientific authority quoted in Friday’s article in support of the global cooling idea is Joe Bastardi, who, according to CBN, is “known as one of America’s most accurate forecasters.” Bastardi reiterated the case being built, that to assume that man can control the weather is to overstep some boundary: Bastardi believes the earth’s climate is much too vast and complex for man to ever control its ups and downs. “The climate is never steady,” he said, using Wisconsin as an example. “In Wisconsin, we’ve had glaciers and we’ve also had rain forests, alright? So theoretically the range in this majestic creation in Wisconsin is that someday they could have rain forests again,” Bastardi explained. “Someday they could have glaciers again,” he said. Bastardi, who was a popular personality for Accuweather (where he worked for over 30 years) until he resigned earlier this year, now works for a private startup weather forcasting firm that focuses on helping businesses manage weather-related risk. The firm, Weatherbell, also hired Joseph D’Aleo, a fellow climate-change skeptic who registered the domain for ICECAP, a site that promotes global warming skepticism, in 2006. The story is poised to become an issue in the GOP primary race, as global warming skepticism becomes a litmus test for the party nomination.

Wisdom From a Beauty Queen

ann — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:23:22 +0000

Abby Ohlheiser: In the interest of The Revealer’s ongoing coverage of beauty pageants, we’d like to draw your attention to the following FoxNews.com story about the latest batch of politically-charged questions posed to contestants. Alleging that the questions, which ask about teaching evolution in schools and whether the candidates would pose for nude photos or not, are trying to create another Carrie Prejean moment (which, hey, they might be), the article cites another aspect of this year’s Miss USA pageant as possibly more worrying: Another factor that could influence how contestants answer is the makeup of the crowd. MUO has given away a significant amount of free tickets to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to attend the live telecast. HRC are prominent champions for the legalization of gay marriage, the very topic that sparked the Prejean pandemonium two years ago. The organization happens to be holding its leadership summit in Las Vegas on the same weekend, a source told Pop Tarts. According to Meyer, the presence of a large contingent of HRC members in the crowd alone could be intimidating for the more conservative contestants if a question similar Prejean’s is raised. It remains to be seen whether the HRC beauty pagent aficionados in the audience will intimidate the more conservative young women or not. Of note here is that beauty contests, which are a rather conservative, conventional presentation of what’s valuable about a woman, (and in that sense, an ideal platform for a certain sort of conservative, female potential leader a la Palin), have become a source for evidence of perceived liberal persecution of conservative values. Meanwhile, the outgoing Miss USA, Rimi Fakih, the first Muslim to win the title, has been criticized for being not Muslim enough and too Muslim. Adding to the pen of would-be chaperones, the Miss Universe Organization, concerned that she might be partying a bit too hard (and too late) for their taste, recently reviewed security footage from cameras outside her apartment building.

Osama Bin Laden, Dead

ann — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:40:35 +0000

Typing this, I hesitate. Is this a mere death? An assassination? A murder? And if not the latter, why not? Mass murderers and perpetrators of genocide have been brought to trial, yet the U.S. now abandons established paths of justice. They’ve “taken him out.” Have we already tried bin Laden in our media, determined him guilty beyond doubt, not worthy of justice except the justice that we see in death? Or is it because we’ve pinned the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers on him when after all, it was a U.S. president who decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq? Is there catharsis in the news today? Do the families of those killed on September 11 feel their loss is vindicated? Do the revelers in front of the White House rejoice in the death of another man, his face familiar to some of them since their early school days, or in the success of their president, or perhaps, for the idea that something evil is no longer in the world? And that America has eradicated it? They’re chest-bumping on the mall. Boozing it up at Ground Zero. Marwan Bishara writes at Al Jazeera, “Killing the Alibi,” that the U.S. has now lost it’s excuse to be in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mark Crispin Miller asked the provocative question last night, Is the War on Terror over? His question highlights the lie that we are at war with one man and not an ideology or social or political climate. Comparing conservative U.S. and conservative Muslim reactions to OBL’s death, from Mother Jones. At Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner lists some early reactions from Christian leaders. David Corn on the presidential politics that play into Osama bin Laden’s killing. Mark Levine reminds us to now think of the costs of the wars. CNN collects reactions from the likes of Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and other politicals. Abby Ohlheiser sends us word of “deatherism,” in which skeptics deny that OBL is really dead; DNA tests couldn’t possibly have been completed so quickly.