Episcopal Smackdown!: Is Lauren Winner‘s new book on Real Sex (spoiler: only hetero, married whoopee) actually creeping fundamentalism? Astrid Storm thinks so. Storm, an Episcopal priest, takes on Winner, an Episcopal priest-to-be and one of the bright young stars of intellectual Christian conservatism. Storm V. Winner! You couldn’t ask for better names for an Episcopal smackdown.

Six-Pointed Star: Sol Star of HBO’s Deadwood “may not be the first Jewish character to appear in a Western,” writes Stephen Vider, “but his bold, matter-of-fact portrayal, played neither for laughs nor morality lessons, is pioneering.”

The Way Christ was a Man: Eula Biss: “The concept of Christ is considerably older than the concept of zero. Both are problematic, but the problem of zero troubles me more than the problem of Christ.

“Zero is not a number. Or at least it does not behave like a number. It does not add, subtract, or multiply like other numbers. Zero is a number the way Christ was a man.

“Aristotle, for one, did not believe in zero.”

Excerpted from an excerpt of “The Pain Scale,” by Eula Biss, in the June issue of Harper’s. Originally published in the Spring issue of the Seneca Review. The poem continues through the pain scale of 0-10, and we recommend every word; but these, in particular, seem relevant to the problem of journalism about religion.

Castro Ally, Christ lover befuddles US press:
A Christian Science Monitor story on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as the next big threat to the U.S. “balances” left and right by noting all of Chavez’ impressive good works on the one hand and giving ink to scheming toads like Otto Reich, a former undersecretary of state under Bush II who never saw a Latin American dictator he didn’t love — unless it’s a pinko like Chavez, or the Father of All Evil (F.O.E.), Castro. The headline editor seems to have followed Reich’s lead, identifying Chavez not by name or country but simply as “Castro Ally.”

That Reich should not be taken seriously as an analyst of foreign affairs should be obvious to journalists left and right — he’s an activist, and should be understood as such. That dealing with Castro is not, in and of itself, proof that Chavez is a thug, ought to be — but is not — clear in this story. But all that falls into the he said/she said squabble writ large in Latin America. Who cares? Not The Revealer.

What we care about, of course, is religion, and that’s what’s missing from this story. Chavez regularly employs religious — even fundamentalist — Christian rhetoric, in a style similar to that of American Christian conservatives. His sense of divine mission seem to be key to his popularity — and his success.

It also complicates the story. This ain’t a tale of Capitalism and God vs. godless socialism. In Venezuela, it’s the secular elite who oppose Chavez, while in the U.S. opposition comes from an alliance of Castro-haters (a faith unto itself) and Christian conservatives who identify capitalism with Christianity. So what do we have here? A narrative of three gods, maybe four. It’s a duel of the divine, a rhetorical clash of religious ideas. That won’t play in the American press, where leftist economic ideas are by definition secular, so what does the American press do? Ignores the ghost in the machine.