consumerism

"They said father didn't keep his Life Insurance paid up!"—advertisement for Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Truth-Telling in Vulgaria

Questions for Kathryn Joyce, who bursts the international Christian adoption bubble in her new book, The Child Catchers.

Killing the Buddha

The Heavenly BMW

Gawker, where KtB gets all its religion news, reports that police found Zachery Tims, Jr., pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, an 8,000-strong megachurch in Orlando, dead with what appeared…

Screening Room.

Mobilize and Contemplate

What’s spiritually at stake in The Tree of Life?

From the "Thor" movie poster.

Valhal-Mart

What happens when Hollywood gets a hold of your gods.

"Nature's Paradise"

Let There Be (the Painter of) Light™

Doubting Thomas Kinkade.

Killing the Buddha

Ingrate Rejects Hajj Souvenirs

What the hell kind of souvenirs are these? Caftans? Prayer beads? Dates? I was hoping you’d bring me a t-shirt or a keychain or at the very least, a plastic…

Killing the Buddha

God and Wal-Mart

This week I spoke with GRITtv’s Laura Flanders about the surprisingly diverse Christian Right opposition to the Obama administration. Is racism a major component of the tea party movement? No…

Killing the Buddha

Stuff White Evangelicals Like

Have you always wanted to get into the Stuff White People Like craze, but you can’t because you don’t relate to its implicit godless secular humanism? Well, maybe this one’s…

Ad in the <em>Jewish Standard</em>

Kaddish Clearance Sale

Just call 1-800-KADDISH, today!

Killing the Buddha

Fairies or Princesses?

We recently received a delightful short essay from James Royce McGuire, writer of fiction and plays, called “The Fairy Land.” Let’s wander through it together! It’s extremely easy to lose…

puntacana_fishbane_4

All I Ever Wanted

A skeptical vacationer laments the lack of cock fighting at Club Med.

creditcardrosary

Credit Card Rosary

My friend/hero Will, who for the months since his success in electing Barack Obama president has made it his business to travel around “visiting people,” sent me a delightful little…

"Yeah, but don't you want to look good?"

How Do I Look?

As the old saying goes: If you’re not a slobby activist when you’re twenty, you don’t have a heart. If you’re not a fashion plate by thirty, it’s time to go shopping.

"Pop religion sells."

Brand Name Buddhism

For Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, it’s alright to get a little dirty, so long as you know which detergent will get your karma clean.

"So what if you can't pin down the exact history of yoga..."

Yoga for Skeptics

Desperate for enlightenment, Westerners flock to India. But the modern yogis’ link to a mystical ancient lineage may be mere hocus pocus.

Whose passion exactly are we're talking about here?

Whose Passion?

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

The Great Crowd

Who Wants to Live Forever?

There’ll be pie in the sky when you die — but what if there’s not enough to go around?

Photographs by Joanna Ebenstein

Jesus Kitsch, My Lord and Savior

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