Religion
A Testimony of Serpent Handling
Photographer Hunter Barnes spent a month in West Virginia documenting a congregation of Serpent Handlers, an old-time religion that is dying out – only 15 members are left. They express their faith through a mixture of serpent handling, healing and drinking poison. Barnes is raising money via Kickstarter to turn his photos into a book. [...]
Dirty Girls
Here’s an article from Christwire that analyzes the trend towards a hipster-offshoot: the dirty girl. Author Stephenson Billings has clearly thought a lot about the phenomenon of girls who: “…will mimic the deadbeat celebrities she sees on programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Entourage, mocking hardworking people behind her gold sunglasses as she high heels [...]
The Sheikh’s Batmobile
The Sheikh’s Batmobile by Richard Poplak takes readers on a tour of 17 Muslim countries in an exploration of how American pop culture has been embraced and reinterpreted – for example plastic surgery in Beirut, and a video game classified as a terrorist training tool. Read a review on More Intelligent Life.
Google Tracks Your Health
Google gets even deeper under your skin… its developed an online health tracker – cleverly called Google Health – that allows you to gather, store, track and share your health records and fitness goals, from blood pressure and medication to how many cups of coffee you drink a day. All the information can be accessed [...]
Top Ten Christian Relics
David Farley produced a handy list of ten Christian relics you should see before you die (if so inclined). The top five are: The Holy Foreskin (but you already knew that, didn’t you?) Holy Breast Milk The Holy Teardrop The Holy Umbilical Cord The Holy Moly Actually, one of those is fake. Take a look [...]
Cross-Cultural Wedding Planning
A new type of wedding planner is emerging – one who is able to blend the wedding traditions of two different cultures into one ceremony that pleases the bride and doesn’t upset the relatives. Iconoculture reports that a Chinese American / Indian American couple had a wedding that involved five changes of costume, two ceremonies, [...]
The Creation Museum
More Intelligent Life , a quarterly magazine from the Economist, has an article on the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Since it opened in 2007, more than 1 million visitors have admired Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden planted with plastic plants and part of Noah’s ark and quailed at an apocalyptic corridor done [...]
It’s a Miracle!
ABC News reports that the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 79% of Americans believe in miracles, such as divine intervention. Read the numerous comments in response to the (very short) article for an insight into people’s beliefs.
The Uncensored Bible
The Uncensored Bible: The Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book by John Kaltner, Steven McKenzie and Joel Kilpatrick is a rather rude interpretation of the good book (and one that might make for more interesting reading in hotel bedrooms than the real thing). The authors, two Bible scholars and a journalist ask, and [...]
Last Supper Portions
A Cornell University professor and his brother, a religious studies professor, studied paintings of the Last Supper and discovered that artist’s through the centuries have gradually been increasing the amount of food being eaten by Jesus and his disciples, which they say mirrors socio-cultural changes through the ages. Read the full article on Reuters.
