On February 3, 2010, the Yavapai County, Arizona Sheriff's Department arrested self-help counselor James Arthur Ray, charging him with three counts of manslaughter for the deaths that took place in the course of his October 2009 "Spiritual Warrior" retreat. Prior to the deaths, Ray had advertised the retreat as part of his program to "create harmonic wealth in all areas of your life" and offered secrets he said he had "searched out in the mountains of Peru, the jungles of the Amazon (and a few other places I don't care to recall)." On the final evening of the five-day $9,000 retreat, participants gathered inside a tarp-covered wooden sweat lodge for a ritual of purification they hoped would attract material bounty.  About an hour into the "sweat lodge" event, some participants began to vomit and pass out from the high heat, dehydration and lack of ventilation. Before it was over, nearly two-dozen people were hospitalized, two people were dead and one more would die a week later.   ... read more

There may be no atheists in foxholes, but apparently there are a few Wiccans.

Stories broke this week concerning a Wiccan stone-circle established at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs--that bastion of evangelical Christianity. But what exactly was the story? That depended on which media outlet you turned to for the news. ... read more

Only Pat Robertson could offhandedly twist a natural disaster to make it sound like a divine slap in the face to some of the world's poorest people. Whether he intended to or not, Robertson instantly became a huge part of the Haiti story, thanks to the American news media, which benefit from outrageous sound bites practically every time Robertson opens his mouth. ... read more

As movies like "Legion" and TV shows such as Supernatural make clear, angels are once again pop culture commodities, though the kinder, gentler sort (think Roma Downey or Michael Landon) are definitely passe.

Our era's closest facsimile to the gentle, selfless helpmate of the last century is Earl, the unkempt, tobacco-chewing angel on Saving Grace. He is a representative of God, but one who could just as easily pass as your local sinner. In contrast, a wide variety of angels in contemporary popular culture are misanthropic bad-asses. For example, in the recent film "Legion," God is through with humanity and sends angels to deliver an apocalyptic punishment. Angels in these new narratives are either angry at God for privileging humans or at war with each other, siding with Lucifer or heaven. In most cases, flawed humans are simply pawns in the larger battle. This storyline has dominated the CW show Supernatural for the last season and a half. ... read more

The debate in France over banning burqas is one of those issues where geopolitics, gender and religion all collide in a train wreck. In terms of media coverage, that collision has raised a cacophony of voices, ranging from Americans aghast at the notion of government intervention in religious expression to the nationalist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of xenophobic French politicians.

But the one voice that seems to be missing from mainstream media coverage of the issue in the U.S. is that of the burqa wearers themselves. While a few have been quoted as saying they wear the garment by choice, there are seldom questions inviting the wearers to explain why they prefer it over the dominant clothing styles. ... read more

If there had been the miniseries and four seasons of BSG – Dayeinu

If there had been the miniseries, the four seasons, and the Caprica pilot – Dayeinu

But The Caprican? At the very moment when journalists wonder what and if they have a future, Ron Moore reveals we have a very deep past (Did you catch the New York Times' bungling of the timeline?) If you don't, as I do, teach journalism, this may seem incidental—but it goes to the heart of what made BSG a knockout series and may do the same for Caprica: the shows' embedded humanism. ... read more

CNN Wins! Anderson Cooper and his posse narrowly edged out CBS' Kelly Cobjella to reach Haiti first, according to the Los Angeles Times' tally sheet entitled, "Media Hustle to Get to Haiti."

Cooper had cinched his win by hitching a ride on a government helicopter from the Dominican Republican. Cobjella made slower progress on the treacherous Haitian "highways" (if you have ever been to Haiti, you know why that word is in quotes).

The media mantra was "The First Shall Not Be the Last," though it's not clear that other key journalistic tenets survived the trek to Port-au-Prince.  

But did the journalists racing to Haiti (as well as their colleagues at Fox who were criticized for sitting behind their desks) miss the real point in Haiti coverage? ... read more

I'm still waiting, but that's not a complaint. If what I've seen in the legacy media is indicative of what he'd send, it would be an exercise in lyrical excess that says more about the reporter than the reported.

The weepies came a cropper this weekend with tales of loss and lamentation. In between the BIG WHY (why us?) and brutal HOW (how do we go on?) were praise-filled services (we will survive), ruined chapels (was every Catholic church really destroyed?), ecumenical hand-holding (Catholics and Protestant find common cause) and woo-woo Voodoo vibes. There were poetic descriptions and stunning photos, but no surprises: God is mysterious, survivors come together and we all pray for a better tomorrow. ... read more

Brit Hume was right about Buddhism – or maybe half right.

Earlier this month, the right-wing Fox commentator (redundant) was talking (like practically everyone else on TV) about the sexual sins of Tiger Woods.

"He is said to be a Buddhist," Hume intoned with gravitas. "I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn your faith, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'"

Of course, the elite, liberal, Dalai Lama-loving media went nuts. The Buddhist blogosphere erupted. Jon Stewart mocked the ignorance and intolerance of it all. ... read more

Media chatter about religion heated up in the past week in response to Brit Hume's come-to-Jesus altar call for Tiger Woods.  The story first got framed as a smack-down between Jesus and the Buddha, and subsequently as a lesson in liberal tolerance for religious difference. CNN's Rick Sanchez tried another tack, when he interviewed "a Buddhist expert" for a segment Sanchez called Buddhism 101. Beliefnet blogger Ethan Nicktern pushed beyond the polarization, explaining Buddhist basics to Sanchez, who outed himself as a Christian, but of a more open-minded sort than Hume. Over at the New York Times, Ross Douthat defended Hume's remarks and called debate about religious differences essential to public life. But really, is this the kind of debate about religion we must endure in the U.S. – one involving two layers of celebrity and filtered finally through the lens of politics?    ... read more