Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Yahoo] For decades, Boston University sociologist Peter Berger says, American intellectuals have looked down on evangelicals. Educated people have the notion that evangelicals are "barefoot people of Tobacco Road who, I don't know, sleep with their sisters or something," Berger says. It's time that attitude changed, he says. "That was probably never correct, but it's totally false now and I think the image should be corrected," Berger said in a recent interview. Now, his university's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs is leading a two-year project that explores ... Read More

[UPI] A New York institute is promoting the growth of humanist holidays as alternatives to religious holidays, an institute official says. Institute for Humanist Studies Executive Director Matt Cherry said his group had posted a calendar full of humanist holidays on its Web site, secularseasons.org, and he was hopeful such events could even appeal to religious individuals, The Washington Times reported Saturday. "Some religious holidays are about culture and tradition, not theology," Cherry said. "Even people who go to church only on Christmas or to synagogue on ... Read More

[Relevant Mag] At the invitation of Rick Schirmer of Motive Media, I recently attended the screening of Premise Media’s Expelled, a new Docu-flick investigating the hot debate between Evolution and Intelligent Design theories. Ben Stein (the monotone teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Wonder Years) is the film’s co-writer, and lead. He arrived at the screening with a suit and a pair of Vans. The film opens by exposing severe cases of highly-qualified educators and professors at top universities who have been fired ... Read More

[These are my thoughts and not those of Campus Crusade or my parents]  Here are the facts about religion and chaplains in the military: 1. In the military, there are Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic  etc chaplains. 2. Each chaplain is free to share his faith beliefs all he wants within the military guidelines given him. They are not muzzled. 3. Each chaplain is responsible for providing for the spiritual needs of all the soldiers under him or her. Therefore they provide and announce: On Sundays, on ... Read More

[From TIME] On Sunday mornings, most parents who don't believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids' soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there's no need for church, right? Maybe. But some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. "When you have kids," says Julie Willey, a design engineer, "you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to ... Read More