• Many of us here at TheRevealer are suffering from PBBD– Post Breaking Bad Disorder. To pay tribute to the show that invited us to dabble in the realms of nihilism, moralism, and redemption, here is a tiny excerpt from a 2011 interview show creator Vince Gilligan granted to the NYTimes:

“If there’s a larger lesson to ‘Breaking Bad,’ it’s that actions have consequences,” Gilligan said during lunch one day in his trailer. “If religion is a reaction of man, and nothing more, it seems to me that it represents a human desire for wrongdoers to be punished. I hate the idea of Idi Amin living in Saudi Arabia for the last 25 years of his life. That galls me to no end.” He paused for a moment and speared a few tater tots in a white plastic-foam tray perched on his lap. “I feel some sort of need for biblical atonement, or justice, or something,” he said between chews. “I like to believe there is some comeuppance, that karma kicks in at some point, even if it takes years or decades to happen,” he went on. “My girlfriend says this great thing that’s become my philosophy as well. ‘I want to believe there’s a heaven. But I can’t not believe there’s a hell.’”

 

• T.M. Luhrmann, an anthropologist of religion at Stanford University, has a thought-provoking analysis on the intersections between mental illness, violence, and American culture in the NYTimes this month.  She also has an interesting piece out titled, “Counjuring Up Our own Gods.”The article is a compelling read, especially for those trying cultivate their own tulpas.

 

• According to the NYTimes, the Vatican Bank has “published the first annual report of its financial records in its 125-year history.” The publication of the report was in sync with the issuance of yet another interview with Pope Francis, this time conducted by Eugenio Scalfari, founder of Rome’s newspaper La Repubblica, in which Francis is quoted as critiquing the bureaucracy of the Vatican, referring to the Church court as “the leprosy of the papacy.”

 

• In other Vatican news, NPR’s Senior European Correspondent, Sylvia Poggioli, has launched a Reddit thread engaging with readers about the recent going-ons of Pope Francis.

 

• Buzzfeed reminds us to start making proper preparations for “Thanksgivukkah,” as we will not have the opportunity to celebrate this hybrid-holiday for another 70,000 years.

• Do you have any other plans this November besides Thanksgivukkah? Consider RSVPing to Billy Graham’s evangelistic 95th birthday extravaganza. The event, dubbed “My Hope America,” will feature a series of “videos designed to clearly present the Gospel with life-changing testimonies & powerful messages from Billy Graham.”

 

• In American Right-wing news, Pat Robertson claimed on the 700 Club that eating halal food is equivalent to funding terrorists, Michelle Bachmann evoked apocalyptic-end of-days sentiment when accusing President Obama of funding Al-Qaeda, and Fox News contributor Todd Starnes prophesied the US military waging war on American Christians.

• In news that seemed to be plucked straight out of a bad R.E.M. song and not a Pew Research report,  American Jews have apparently been losing their religion.

 

• Evidently, racial profiling is not limited to the NYPD. In sensing out who to approach with the question “Are you Jewish,” members of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement claim it’s all about the forehead.

 

• The NYTimes this week also reports on the rise of American Jewish students deciding to “take up study of the Arab world.”

 

• NPR’s sectional, All Things Considered, launched a series this past week entitled “What Comes Next? Conversations on the afterlife,” in which an imam, a nun, and a rabbi provide their thoughts on what happens when we die.

 

• According to Salon this month, members of the hacktivist organization “Anonymous” have once again started waging cyber-warfare on the Church of Scientology, claiming the religious organization has begun using Craigslist in an attempt to attract new members.

 

• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted at Twitter chairperson Jack Dorsey this week, relaying that Internet censorship in the Islamic Republic is not a matter of concern.

 

• In other internationalist news, Guernica has a nice piece this week on the powers of spiritual healing in Sierra Leone. The NYTimes also issued an article entitled, “The Politics of Religious Conversions in Jharkhand. “

 

• The funeral for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke was suspended this week, after clashes erupted between protesters and right Wing sympathizers. The service was being conducted in Rome by members of a Catholic fringe movement known as the Society for Saint Piux X. Here is a clip from a 1994 interview with Priebke conducted by ABC’s Sam Donaldson.

 

• Eighty-nine people were killed after a stampede broke out during the Hindu Dussehra festival in Datia, India this week, Reuters reports.

 

• Australian artists explored the spaces of religion and spirituality in the country’s longest-run art competition, the Blake Prize.

 

• In Swedish news, the Church of Sweden elected its first female archbishop this week.

 

• The NYTimes reports that a Malaysian court issued a ruling barring all non-Muslims from using the word “Allah.” Because the Malay language incorporates numerous linguistic derivatives from Arabic, many Malaysian non-Muslims (40% of Malaysia’s population is non-Muslim) use the term “Allah” when speaking of God.

 

• The Christian anti-human trafficking organization, Price of Life NYC, held an event on the ethics of the pornography industry this week at NYU. Participants included porn-star Ron Jeremy and Craig Gross, pastor of the XXX Church.

 

• Slate has a piece this week on a recently discovered manuscript that reveals the late George Bernard Shaw’s thoughts on the divine.

 

• In Friends-of-Ours-News, our very own contributing editor Ann Neumann has agreat new piece out   on stem cells and the Vatican. Ann Pellegrini, Professor of Religious and Performance Studies here at NYU, along with Michael Bronski and Michael Amico, released their collaborative book entitled “You Can Tell Just by Looking: And 20 Other Myths About LGBT Life and People.” You can read an excerpt from the book at The Nation, here.

 

• On funnier notes, God eats humans, OJ Simpson wants his own religious television show titled “Holy Safari,” claiming he converted his White-supremacist cellmate to Christianity, DailyMail reports.

 

• Finally, here’s some awkward Jesus art.

 

– Christopher Smith, Student Assistant, The Revealer