Evangelicals
Where Do Evangelicals Stand on CEO Compensation?
In the spirit of this week’s question on how different religious groups relate to the massive financial troubles on Wall Street, I spent time this morning digging through resources on how evangelicals view the issue of CEO compensation. With the federal bailout package currently stalled in Congress ландшафтin part because of a debate over whether [...]
24Sep2008 | Andrea Useem | 5 comments | Continued
Obama in Lynchburg: The Faith-versus-Works Debate
Here’s a photo I took this weekend while driving through Lynchburg, the central Virginia town where religious right leader Jerry Falwell ministered and built Liberty University. The sign outside this small church reads, as you can see: “USA TELL OBAMA JESUS CHRIST NEEDED FOR SALVATION READ ACTS 4:12.”
Part of the reason this sign caught my [...]
What the Heck Is the Emerging Church? A “Velvet Elvis” Answer
I always like new ideas, and I relish nothing more than watching big, paradigm-shifting movements overturn the status quo. (This probably has something to do with my birth-order position as a “rebellious” second child, but anyways.) Emergent Christianity has tickled my interest recently because it is just that: a completely new way of doing things. [...]
16Jul2008 | Andrea Useem | 4 comments | ContinuedEmergent Islam? Surfing toward an Ultra-modern American Faith Life
Sometimes while doing research for a writing project, I will end up spending several hours or an entire afternoon or evening clicking from one website to the next, engrossed in the world of online content. My writing project these days is about how religious congregations use Web 2.0 technologies — research that will culminate this [...]
22May2008 | Andrea Useem | 10 comments | ContinuedMormon American Idol, Church on Second Life and Barack Obama in Indiana
It’s been a big night, yet another Tuesday evening of clicking back and forth between American Idol and Democratic primary results. So first things first: It looks like America is going to have its first-ever Mormon American Idol in 17-year-old David Archuleta. The three judges, Randy, Paula and Simon, go crazy for Archuleta’s earnest crooning, [...]
6May2008 | Andrea Useem | 7 comments | ContinuedGod as a Bearded Zucchini: Phil Vischer on the New Veggie Tales Movie
Last week, ReligionWriter reviewed the new Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, which is out in theaters today, Jan. 11, and shared her conversation with Phil Vischer, co-creator of Veggie Tales.
Today that conversation, originally held in September in San Antonio, continues. (And RW wishes she had prepared this as a podcast, because [...]
What Makes a Movie “Christian?” Q+A on new Veggie Tales movie
There are no shortage of excellent kids movies these days — ReligionWriter rang in the new year watching Ratatouille and eating popcorn with her three young boys, for example — but this Friday, January 11, brings another kid’s option to the big screen: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie.
What does [...]
Hospital Reading: America’s Most Religious College Students
This weekend ReligionWriter found herself at an area hospital, watching over her one-year-old son, Moses, who was suffering from respiratory problems (he’s better now, and we’re both home, thank you.) But there’s nothing like being captive in a strange, somewhat scary place to make a book seem like a treasured escape. While rocking Moses to [...]
10Dec2007 | Andrea Useem | 1 comment | ContinuedDoes Your Pastor Need an MBA?
Talk to a savvy evangelical pastor these days, and he (yes, he probably will be a “he”) might sound a lot like a marketing executive. Todd Wilson, the “Executive Pastor” at New Life, a dynamic multi-site church in Northern Virginia, told ReligionWriter, reporting for a 2005 Washington Examiner story, that walking into a church should [...]
16Nov2007 | Andrea Useem | 5 comments | ContinuedEvangelical Executives: Q+A with D. Michael Lindsay
When ReligionWriter first heard about sociologist Michael Lindsay’s new book, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite (Oxford, August) her first thought was: “Another book about evangelicals?” But after hearing Lindsay speak at the Religion Newswriters Association conference in September, and again at the Pew Forum [...]
6Nov2007 | Andrea Useem | 1 comment | Continued