The Common Good

Culture Watch

Tina Beattie on The New Atheists (interview by Becky Garrison)

The New Atheists: The Twilight of Reason and the War on ReligionBecky Garrison recently e-mailed Tina Beattie, author of

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The View from 1908

Tony Jones Great GrandfatherThis summer, two friends and I are doing something that seems a bit outlandish (especially for 40-year-old guys). We've borrowed a friend's RV, and we're touring the country to talk about our books. Doug Pagitt (A Christianity Worth Believing), Mark Scandrette (

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Hancock: Promising Premise, Great Talent, but ...

Hancock(Spoiler warning--some major plot details are revealed in this article. Stop reading now if you want to see the movie without knowing the outcome. However by the time you've read this article you may not want to see it anyway.)

"Hancock" (the current vehicle for the biggest star in the world, Will Smith) is a superhero story that, on the surface, seems to [...]

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Low: Struggling but Hopeful

Low: You May Need a MurdererLow is a band that defies easy characterization. Over their 15 years as lauded pioneers of the minimalist brand of indie rock they're so closely identified with (they're not crazy about the oft-applied term "slow-core"), the husband-and-wife team of guitarist Alan Sparhawk and drummer Mimi Parker -- plus a [...]

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Forbidden Revivals and the Birth of Bluegrass

Summer Sundays with Phyllis Tickle

In the days of my childhood, summer was the season of the big-tent revivals. More than any other of the myriad things that summer could be and was, it was the revivals that were for me the major descriptor of what a complete and proper summer was. This rather [...]

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Video: They Will Have Their Reward

Sometimes it's hard to hear justice at first ...Yet we are asked to diligently seek it ...

When you take your big prize home, be sure to tell me
You won it with your bag of tricks, flicks, and candy

And I'll be sure to tell you, you've done a good job
For making yourself [...]

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'Milosevic On Trial' (interview by Becky Garrison)

Following is an interview with Michael Christoffersen, director of Milosevic On Trial, a documentary I watched at the Tribeca Film Festival, which demonstrates the horrors that can happen when religion becomes intermingled with empire.



What attracted you to want to follow this entire trial?


By coincidence, I did the documentary Genocide: The Judgment [...]

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In Memory of Maria -- and Millions More

I don't want to assume that readers automatically know who Steven Curtis Chapman is, but if you've been surfing the Web recently, it's very likely you may have seen the name. Chapman is one of the most visible and influential figures of the Christian music genre. As of 2007, he has sold more than 10 million albums, has nine gold and platinum albums, and won five Grammy awards.

Chapman [...]

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What Would Ned Flanders Do?

Some fun for your Friday: Mark Pinsky, author of The Gospel According to the Simpsons, has reviewed the newly released

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