Christianity

Art by Michael Allen Potter

God is Electric, Jesus Electrochemical

By Michael Allen Potter | June 7, 2004

The author goes in search of God and his birth mother. Only one gets found.

John Kerry

John Kerry vs. Martin Luther

By Christopher Orlet | March 31, 2004

The Catholic Kerry preaches that it is Good Works, not Faith alone that justifies.

Whose passion exactly are we're talking about here?

Whose Passion?

By Patton Dodd | February 25, 2004

How Mel Gibson turned the blood of Christ into a marketing plan.

"The Angel of the Revelation," William Blake

Hermaphrodite Terrorist Angel

By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet | February 22, 2004

How many holy rollers does it take to pray the devil out of a hermaphrodite terrorist angel?

Image from "Knocking of Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of the Counterculture" by Mark Oppenheimer (detail)

That Old Time Religion

By Jeff Sharlet | November 24, 2003

Still strange, but different: Three new books look at the changing shape of religion in America.

Page from the Gospel of Thomas, detail.

What It Is, What It Was

By Peter Manseau | October 15, 2003

How many one true religions can dance on the head of a pin?

Photographs by Joanna Ebenstein

Jesus Kitsch, My Lord and Savior

By Erik Hanson | September 25, 2003

In the woods behind a West Virginia monastery, a writer and a photographer ask an age-old question: Is bad art good religion?

Cash backstage in an undated photo.

The Gospel According to Johnny Cash

By Jon Hooten | September 15, 2003

Was the Man in Black our own personal Jesus?

Bob Jones

Being Black at Bob Jones U.

By Florence Williams | August 14, 2003

A fundamentalist university enters the age of integration. Sort of.

Cover art from The Book Against God (detail)

The Book About The Book Against God

By Scott McLemee | July 9, 2003

Critic James Wood’s sanctified blasphemies take fictional form in his new novel.

“What kind of messiah claims to be the One and then insists on suffering and dying?”

One Baaad Messiah

By E.J. Park | May 27, 2003

Neo-Christian longings and the satisfaction of kung-fu saviors.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair

Don’t Stop Unbelieving

By Scott McLemee | May 20, 2003

A new biography of America’s most godless woman.

“For most people, ‘Kum Ba Ya’ is the canonical Christian camp hymn.”

I Am a Sea

By Patton Dodd | May 14, 2003

Learning to speak a new language is never easy, especially one that is already dead.

An Easter service sponsored by US military chaplains, in the public plaza adjacent to the Imperial Palace, 1948.

Red Flags and Christian Soldiers

By Tim Shorrock | April 22, 2003

Operation Gospel – A primer from the last time the U.S. occupied foreign lands.

Piss Christ (detail), Andre Serano, 1989

His So-Called Life

By Peter Manseau | April 16, 2003

Pogroms, plagues, Jesus books… ‘Tis the season.

Mitre Peak, New Zealand

Coming Home, O Lord, I’m Coming Home

By Cheryl Pearl Sucher | April 4, 2003

An expat returns to America just in time for holy war.

Members of the Kurdish militia listen to a radio as President Bush's deadline expires.

Shock and Awe, Fear and Trembling

By Peter Manseau | March 21, 2003

War. Huh. Good God, y’all. What is it good for? Depends on who you ask.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection

Losing Their Religion?

By Diane Winston | February 13, 2003

The Salvation Army has been taking money from the government for years. But at what cost?