Debra Dean Murphy is assistant professor of religion at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She blogs at Intersections: Thoughts on Religion, Culture and Politics and at ekklesiaproject.org.

Posts By This Author

Education For More Than Global Economic Dominance

by Debra Dean Murphy 01-26-2011
"Education is not primarily an industry and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research." -- Read More

Conversion Stories and Mary Karr's Lit

by Debra Dean Murphy 01-24-2011
I used to live in a world where God was a given and unapologetic faith was the lens through which the world was seen and interpreted.

The King's Speech: MLK and Tucson

by Debra Dean Murphy 01-18-2011
In his role as prophet to the nation, Martin Luther King Jr.

Jon Stewart, the End Times, and the Season of Advent

by Debra Dean Murphy 12-14-2010

Political Games in Dead-Serious Times

by Debra Dean Murphy 11-03-2010
Some brief observations on the 2010 election season which, thankfully, has come to an end:

Eat, Pray, Love ... Yourself?

by Debra Dean Murphy 08-27-2010

Eat Pray Love the movie has the makings of a summer hit, with Julia Roberts as its star and Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling book as its source material.

The book was something of a phenomenon when it was published in 2006: instantly popular and penned by an accomplished writer (a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002) who was immensely likeable on the talk-show circuit.

Inception: The Art of Paying Attention in Books and Film

by Debra Dean Murphy 07-26-2010

I've been reading Paul Harding's debut novel, Tinkers, which was this year's surprise Pulitzer Prize winner. It's a modest tome -- slim of build, light in the hand.

Flag vs. Font: Pledging Our Allegiance

by Debra Dean Murphy 07-07-2010
"You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever." (The Book of Common Prayer)

The Moral of "Toy Story 3"

by Debra Dean Murphy 06-30-2010

It's been awhile since Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the gang have been on the big screen, but they've lost none of their charm in the interim.

Immigration, Children, and the Way of Jesus

by Debra Dean Murphy 06-15-2010

Last month, an encounter between Michelle Obama and a Latina child in a suburban Maryland school brought into sharp relief one of the most pressing issues surrounding U.S.

Grief, Repentance, and the BP Oil Spill

by Debra Dean Murphy 06-07-2010

The current crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is being packaged and sold as a story of blame and gross incompetence, and there's plenty of both to go around.

Civility and a Hermeneutic of Generosity

by Debra Dean Murphy 05-26-2010
We live in an increasingly partisan world. This is not news. But it's the news "business," in many ways, that has made it so.

We are Exiles Who Follow an Alien, Undocumented, Migrant Messiah

by Debra Dean Murphy 05-03-2010

There's a scene in the film Food, Inc. that reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of U.S.