Culture
Ravens or Niners? Christians face a ‘Super’ dilemma
(RNS) Who should Christians root for in Sunday’s Super Bowl: the San Francisco 49ers or the Baltimore Ravens?
It may be a silly question to some, though not to millions of American believers who invest a lot of faith and hope in their sports teams, and see it repaid many times ove...
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Renowned journalist throws the book at Scientology
(RNS) After winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his expose of al-Qaida, journalist Lawrence Wright turned his eye toward another secretive and controversial religious movement.
The Church of Scientology boasts a glittering roster of celebrity adherents and landmark real estate....
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Modeling agency helps demure Muslims keep it ‘Underwraps’
(RNS) Ever since she was a little girl, Savannah Uqdah longed to pose for pictures and strut down a runway with flashbulbs bursting. But as an observant Muslim who didn't want to violate Islam’s tenets on modesty, the aspiring model assumed that designers wouldn't hire someone who w...
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Drew Barrymore considers converting to Judaism
(RNS) Drew Barrymore is telling the world that she and her Jewish husband plan to raise baby daughter Olive as Jewish, and the former child star may not be far behind.
Barrymore said so on "The View" on Friday (Jan. 25), but various celebrity outlets, such as E! Online and Us Week...
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At halftime, a religious alternative to Beyonce
(RNS) Super Bowl halftime shows often burn more vivid images into the American conscience than the most-watched football game of the year, and can claim millions more viewers.
They can also ignite controversy, as Janet Jackson did with her halftime "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004....
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COMMENTARY: Deep in the heart of Texas mythology
AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) After a walk around the Texas Statehouse, it became clear they tell a different history here.
Inside the Capitol is a large painting of a onetime Tennessee congressman named David Crockett, who failed in a re-election bid and stormed out west to join the revolu...
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Tibetans mourn as self-immolations near 100
BORA MONASTERY, China (RNS) Six Tibetan pilgrims prostrated themselves face down on the road, then rose, took three paces forward and repeated the dusty act of devotion around the 250-year-old monastery here.
It is a ritual that Tibetans have practiced for centuries. Despite wars...
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Isolation leads British Muslims to act like ‘idiots’
LONDON (RNS) The increasing isolation of Britain's Muslim community is leading to stepped-up attacks against Muslims and a sense that Muslims can act like "idiots" against outsiders in some parts of the city, British government and Muslim leaders say.
Parts of London's East End ha...
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Sundance Diary: Imagining the world as it ought to be
PARK CITY, Utah (RNS) It's been said that Hollywood films comfort the afflicted while Sundance films afflict the comfortable. Film offers a vicarious entry to the world the way it is, and the films I saw at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival left me longing for a different world -- th...
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Publishers are in seventh heaven with near-death memoirs
(RNS) Do people really see a light at the end of a tunnel when they have a near-death experience? And could that be heaven up ahead?
That light is shining brighter than ever these days. Heaven is hot. Hotter even than that other place. Just ask any bookseller in America.
Folks h...
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