May/June 2008 issue

The Religious Language Newsletter
Volume 9, Issue 3 -- May/June 2008
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The Religious Language Newsletter (available by e-mail, and archived since January 2000 at http://www.forlovingkindness.org) is written and published every other month by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. (Linguistics), from the Ozark Center for Language Studies (OCLS), at PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137. For additional information, or to unsubscribe, please e-mail ocls@madisoncounty.net.
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In This Issue: Editor's Note; Network Input; Quotes & Comments; Notes On Religious Language In Politics; Cyberspace

#Editor's Note

I have never in my lifetime seen as much attention given to religious language as I am seeing now; it's amazing. It may be that the _effects_ of religious language are finally becoming so obvious that even people who have no interest in the topic can't miss them.

Thank you for all the excellent materials that you've been sending me; I appreciate your help.

#Network Input

1. From Rebecca Haden:

"My Wednesday afternoon study group has the habit of asking, 'How is your soul?' This always strikes me as an unanswerable and maybe a foolish question. Obviously, my soul is fine. How else could it be? My body may have the flu, my mind may be troubled with worldly problems, but my soul is in God's care and I really don't have to worry about it at all."

2. In the 3-4/08 issue I had mentioned that "Brian McLaren, in 'In Search of a Label?' (at http://tinyurl.com/2rou4k), complains about a lexical gap -- the lack of an adequate and appropriate name for Christians who are not part of the Religious Right." In response, Margaret L. Carter wrote:

"RE seeking a label for Christians who aren't part of the religious right: What's wrong with 'mainstream Christianity' (or 'mainline Christianity,' as the newspapers sometimes say)? That term incorporates the fact that right-wing biblical literalists ('fundalits,' as Madeleine L'Engle called them) constitute a minority group among Christians, and a rather recently-formed one at that. Or would 'mainstream' be an insufficiently neutral term, since it implies the right-wing believers are a 'fringe' group?"

**I think the problem is that evangelicals, who are rapidly becoming the overwhelming majority of Christians worldwide, would feel that their majority status entitles _them_ to the "mainstream/mainline" label.

And Rebecca Haden wrote:

"I think that a lot of Christians on the political left are very cross with the way the religious right has hijacked the term 'Christian' and left many people thinking that 'Christian' _means_ 'member of the religious right,' when
actually there should be no need for a separate term. However, I think you said at the time that it was sheer laziness on the part of the religious left that allowed that, and you were probably right."

**I did say that it was laziness. And I readily admit that the word is harsh, coming from someone well aware that we're told not to judge lest _we_ be judged; I do think, however, that it's an accurate word in this particular case. The "hijacking" of the term "Christian" wasn't a sudden action; it took place in the form of slow and steady and dedicated hard work over the course of decades, while the majority of non-right Christians sat and did nothing to counter it. It's _very_ hard work to (a) create an effective vocabulary for talking about a subject and (b) get that set of lexical items established and accepted as the "default" vocabulary. It's hard work, often tedious and boring work, and it tends to be work of the one step forward, two steps back variety. I understand why the religious left didn't take it on, and I understand why they _still_ haven't really buckled down to the task, but that makes it no less necessary.

#Quotes & Comments

1. The Winter 2007/2008 issue of _Image_, pp. 28-38, has an interesting article by T. H. Miller about artist Ruth Weisberg, titled "The Vessel and the Light: Ruth Weisberg Reads the Torah." On page 30:

"The debate over aesthetics and ethics is an established one, whose arguments stretch across the expanse of western intellectual history... In this context, Weisberg's marriage of her art practice with the practice of divine commandments is striking. On the value of the ancient and continued Jewish tradition of liturgical art, she is clear: 'Biblical passages define 'handiwork' as 'a way to glorify G-d.' "

And on page 33: "In my interviews with Weisberg, it has become clear that the American feminist movement of the 1960s and '70s created an intellectual and artistic context for her interrogation of authoritative structures within the art community, thereby opening the door to her feminist analysis of Jewish tradition. This is evident in _The Scroll_, where she sidesteps the patriarchal voice that has typically narrated Jewish history, introducing a thoroughly modern one. Rather than a group of men wrapped in prayer shawls reading the Torah, Weisberg portrays herself among a close community of women... Conventionally speaking, the image departs in no uncertain terms from ancient, patriarchal ritual. But for those who yearn for a rethinking of Jewish life from a judicious revisionist perspective, the artist has 'done a mitzvah' by showing us a lived experience of women performing the mitzvah of reading the Torah."

2. Courtesy of the Andrew Tobias blog for 3/12/08, I am now aware of a large set of "Jewish Haikus"; I have had no luck finding out who wrote them. But I'd like to quote just one here, as an example...

On Passover we
opened the door for Elijah.
Now our cat is gone.

3. "Ben Witherington is a Methodist New Testament scholar, and Rob Bell a rising Michigan megapastor. Yet each regards sources like the Mishnah and Rabbi Akiva as vital to understanding history's best-known Jew: Jesus. This is seismic. For centuries, the discipline of Christian 'Hebraics' consisted primarily of Christians cherry-picking Jewish texts to support the traditionally assumed contradiction between the Jews -- whose alleged dry legalism contributed to their fumbling their ancient tribal covenant with God -- and Jesus, who personally embodies God's new covenant of love. But today seminaries across the Christian spectrum teach, as Vanderbilt University New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine says, that 'if you get the [Jewish] context wrong, you will certainly get Jesus wrong.' "

This is David Van Biema, writing on page 60 of the 3/24/08 issue of _Time_, about one of "10 Ideas That Are Changing The World." The piece is titled "Re-Judaizing Jesus. Scholars are now rereading the Gospels through the eyes of a Jew: Jesus." And Van Biema tells us that "the reassessment should increase both Jewish-Christian amity and gospel clarity...."

4. In the same issue of _Time_, on page 78, Nancy Gibbs has an essay titled "The New Road to Hell," where she tells us what Gianfranco Girotti [identified as "the No. 2 Catholic official in charge of confessions and penitence"] has to say about sin:

" 'You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbor's wife' but also by polluting, cloning, taking drugs, promoting social injustice or becoming obscenely rich. Where the standard sins are individual failings, in a global culture sin is social. 'Attention to sin is a more urgent task today,' Girotti said, 'precisely because its consequences are more abundant and more destructive."

And Gibbs says, of the "notion of social sin," that the original seven deadly sins were about what "separates us from God," while the new list "is about what separates us from one another; it makes abstract the failings that once were intimate and in the process may make sin smaller, not bigger or more relevant."

5. There is a wonderful memoir -- "Falling: Confessions of a lapsed forest Christian," by Donovan Hohn, on pp. 57-70 of the 4/08 issue of _Harper's_; unfortunately, it's only available online to print-version subscribers. If you get a chance to read it, I urge you to. Here's a sample from page 58, to show you the style and flavor; the "she" mentioned in the quote is the author's mother.

"My father was a practicing Presbyterian, she a convert to Catholicism, and the parochial school they sent us to was Episcopalian, but in truth we belonged to none of these denominations. We were 'forest Christians,' followers of that characteristically American brand of pantheism whose founding prophets were Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. In the Bible, wilderness is either a sanctuary to which prophets flee... or else it is a purgatory through which chosen people wander... In the scriptures of forest Christians, however, the untamed refuges of North America are wilderness and promised land both, and to be exiled there is not perdition but deliverance."

I went googling for "forest Christians," a phrase that was entirely new to me, and found nothing useful. If you know more about forest Christians, your input would be welcome.

6. My thanks to Patricia Mathews for sending me the 3/08 _Atlantic_, an issue focused on religion, with "Which Religion Will Win" [no question mark after that, for some reason], in large type on the cover. Here's a sampler from some of the stories.

a. From "Born Again," by Walter Russell Mead, pp. 21-24; on page 24:

"American evangelicalism today is flexible, user-friendly, and market driven. It has its core convictions: that a personal encounter with the risen Christ is necessary for salvation, and that the Greek and Hebrew scriptures offer a wholly trustworthy guide to God's will for humankind. But given those core convictions, this religious tradition seeks above all to be relevant, to be engaged, to reach sinners regardless of their culture, their ethnic background, or their politics. ... The real story of the evangelical political movement today involves neither its death nor its triumph, but rather its slow (and ongoing) shift from insurgent to insider, with all of the moderating effects that transition implies."

b. From an extraordinarily fine article by Eliza Griswold titled "God's Country," pp. 40-55, about the competition for believers in Nigeria between Christianity and Islam; on pp. 51-52:

"The Christian Gospel of Prosperity is so powerful that it has spawned a unique Nigerian phenomenon: an Islamic organization called Nasrul-Lahi-il-Fathis (NASFAT). The name is drawn from a verse in the eighth chapter of the Koran: 'There is no help except from Allah.' ... ...[T]he organization is based on economic empowerment and prosperity with an islamic spin. Started with about a dozen members in the 1990s, NASFAT now has 1.2 million members in Nigeria and branches in 25 other countries. ... NASFAT's primary mission is to reclaim those values the world sees as Western, but which its members perceive as integral to the success of the global Islamic community, or _ummah_."

You can read the entire article at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/nigeria . It's long, but it's worth every minute it takes to read.

c. From "And the Winner Is..." (subhead "The coming religious peace"), by Alan Wolfe, pp. 56-63; on page 63:

"The world will never be rid of fanaticism; globalization is just as capable of disseminating extreme ideas as it is of advancing moderation. But fanaticism should not be confused with religious intensity. One can pray passionately to God and lead an otherwise balanced life, just as one can be monomaniacal about things having nothing to do with the divine. And religious leaders prone to fanaticism are likely to find that the price of using force to spread God's word, or to try to monopolize it, will be a greatly diminished hold on the future."

#Notes On Religious Language In Politics

Politics in the U.S. has been overflowing recently with religious language. For example...

1. My thanks to Adrienne Travis for sending me "Obama Speech on Race and Religion," by Charles T. Mathewes, at http://tinyurl.com/3h2fha:

"Some things were predictable, most obviously the generic religious inclusivism -- the demand to follow the Golden Rule, which 'all the world's great religions demand' (which raises the question whether there are any mediocre religions, and if so what do they demand? I don't know. Would that be the Aztecs?) But much of this speech was really quite new. In several important ways it did not reinforce the received categories of civil religion, but transcended and transfigured them."

And "The rhetoric he used was obviously deeply theological. ... The theological language was not being used to compliment America, but to obligate it."

[Note: There's a transcript of the Obama speech at
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/america/18obamaspeech.php .]

2. Strongly recommended: Sara Robinson's "Born Again Americans and Old Time (Civil) Religion," at http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/born-again-americans-and-old-time-civil-religion . Here's a sample:

"All cultures run off of stories -- foundational narratives that tell members who they are, what sets them apart from other people, where they came from, what future they hope for, and where their culture finds its deepest sense of meaning. These narratives become embedded in language, are taught and reinforced by religion, and form the underlying set of assumptions that govern the way people within a culture build, dress, eat, govern themselves, marry, raise kids, and interact with each other. ... America has the historic distinction of being the first large nation since ancient times made up of people who'd walked away from those old cultures, and were thus forced to create a new set of unifying stories from scratch. ... Though they were deeply rooted in Protestant theology and often invoked a special relationship with God, these stories were neither overtly political nor specifically religious. Instead, they spoke to the spiritual and moral core of the shared American identity, and gave us a language we could use to express our common values and dreams. ... The entire country is desperately hungry for a new, compelling story about what it means to be American, and what America means to the world."

3. "Obama's recipe has two main ingredients: In the Call to Renewal speech, he asserted that 'secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.' At the same time, he argued that religious Americans needed to remember 'the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice.' There could be no talk of ours as 'a Christian nation' since 'we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a nation of nonbelievers... Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion specific, values. ... If Obama can end the culture wars by building a center-left majority that includes the religious and non-religious, then conservative resistance to his 'larger project of American renewal' would become irrelevant. He would have the whole bird."

[That part about "the whole bird" is a reference to pastor Rick Warren's response when asked if he was from the left wing or the right wing; he said, "I'm for the whole bird."]

The quote is from an excellent 3/20/08 article by E.J. Dionne in _The New Republic_ titled "Full Faith: Despite Jeremiah Wright, Obama gets religion." You can read the whole piece at http://tinyurl.com/4w8cx8 .

4. My thanks to Adrienne Travis for alerting me to an article by Philip Gorski titled "Religion & American politics: Class, nation and covenant," online at http://tinyurl.com/47kxo9 . It's a thorough and well-written discussion of the current controversy over religious language, and in particular that of Obama's pastor; whatever your political persuasion, I recommend it wholeheartedly. Gorski claims that "Western, democratic, nation-states" have ordinarily had as their solution to the problem of church-and-state one of these three: liberal secularism, civil religion, or religious nationalism. He claims that in the U.S. the left typically chooses "liberal secularism (Jefferson) or civil religion (Kennedy)," while the right typically chooses "civil religion (Lincoln) or religious nationalism (Bush the Lesser)." He goes on to say that "the American version of religious nationalism is governed primarily by the category of chosen-ness and derives its story-line from the Pentateuch... What is missing from this story are the ethical restraints imposed by the covenant." He writes:

"Against this background, the outrage of the right at the prophetic denunciations of the Reverend Wright suddenly appears in a new light. Recall the words that have received the most airtime and sparked the great outrage: 'The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America. No! No! No! God damn America ... ' As many of his defenders have noted, this and other statements by Wright are wholly within the covenant logic. When the Chosen people violate the covenant, God will punish them. But right-wing patriotism... does not allow for this possibility. It assumes that America has been chosen once and for all, and that it has a monopoly on God's blessings."

And he quotes Martin Luther King, preaching about the Vietnam War on 2/4/1968: "God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. ... And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place." God's response, King predicted, would be this: "And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power."

5. And then there are the mysteriously slim handful of articles that address the question of Senator Clinton's religious beliefs and practices, and her religious advisors. The best of those, in my opinion, and the least polemic, is "Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics," by Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet, which appeared in the 9/07 issue of _Mother Jones_. Jones and Sharlet write that:

"Clinton's God talk is more complicated -- and more deeply rooted -- than either fans or foes would have it, a revelation not just of her determination to out-Jesus the gop [sic], but of the powerful religious strand in her own politics. ... Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. ... Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to 'spiritual war' on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. ... The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plans."

And...

"Then, as now, Clinton confounded secularists who recognize public faith only when it comes wrapped in a cornpone accent. Clinton speaks instead the language of nondenominationalism -- a sober, eloquent appreciation of 'values,' the important of prayer, and 'heart' convictions -- which liberals, unfamiliar with the history of evangelical coalition building, mistake for a tidy, apolitical accomodation, a personal separation of church and state. Nor do skeptical voters looking for political opportunism recognize that, when Clinton seeks guidance among prayer partners such as [Doug] Coe and [Sam] Brownback, she is not so much triangulating -- much as that may have become second nature -- as honoring her convictions. In her own way, she is a true believer."

6. From the 1/08 issue of _Harper's_, a review article by John Gray on pp. 85-89 titled "Faith In Reason: Secular fantasies of a godless age"; on page 86 (with reference to Charles Taylor's book _A Secular Age_):

"The world in 1400 was understood to contain spiritual beings -- angels, demons, and God -- that produced natural events such as floods and plagues and were intimately involved in the course of history. In this 'enchanted world' -- as Taylor... calls it -- intentions and decisions were not ascribed only to human agents; they pervaded the cosmos, which was and always remained the creation of a divine being. For those who understood the world in this way, 'atheism comes close to being inconceivable'; unbelief is not an option. "

7. Update on 4/29/08: This newsletter was written before the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's two late April speeches, and I need to read transcripts of both before I can comment on them. I'll take them up in the next issue, and I welcome your input.

#Cyberspace

1. From the _Religion & Ethics Newsletter_ for 4/4/08:

"Army Chaplain Boot Camp"

"Soldiers aren't the only ones training for combat at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Members of the clergy are also participating in exercises as part of a 12-week long curriculum geared toward new army chaplains. The base's U.S Army Chaplain Center and School not only teaches the rules and customs of Army life, but also emphasizes battlefield skills -- from how to react while under fire -- to administering first aid and moving wounded soldiers. Saul Gonzalez provides a behind-the-scenes look at the spiritual, religious and moral leadership training being provided by the Center and how it's helping chaplains prepare for tours of duty in battlefields abroad. 'The expectation is that they already have the ministry skills,' explains Chaplain and Lt. Colonel Marc Gauthier, who plans and manages training at the school. 'What we are trying to do teach them is military skills to make both those things match together, so they provide effective care to soldiers and families and provide effective ministry.' "

For more information, go to http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/ week1131/cover.html .

2. _Religion BookLine_ for 3/12/08 had this brief review of Stefani E. Barner's _Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces: A Handbook for Pagans in the Military_ (Llewellyn 2008):

"In this practical handbook for pagans in the military, Barner reviews a wide selection of topics that could potentially confront this small group and their families. As the wife of a career Air National Guardsman who has seen two tours of duty in Iraq, she writes with firsthand knowledge about the difficulties pagans face in the military, where the majority of personnel and chaplains are evangelical Christians. Barner spells out what rights pagans have and even includes an excerpt from the Wicca section of the U.S. Army Chaplain's Handbook. More important, she lists the potential roadblocks thrown up by military chaplains and shows how best to overcome them without risk of punishment. The book is rounded out with several excellent spells and ceremonies for such things as deployment, going into battle and returning to the home front. It also includes a ritual for a pagan military funeral. Interviews with a pagan soldier, a spouse and the child of a soldier give additional insight into the struggles they confront. Barner writes fluently and with compassion about the warrior's path in today's world."

3. Here's Mike Huckabee, in _SoJoMail_ for 3/27/08, "offering his perspective on the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright":

"As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, 'That's a terrible statement,' I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, 'You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus.' And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had ... more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me."

4. My thanks to Hillevi M. Wyman for sending a copy of "Self-Organizing Congregations," by William O. Avery and Beth Ann Gaede. It begins:

"Steve Doughty, a Presbyterian minister and author who leads spiritual retreats, reports that an increasing number of attendees of his spiritual retreats describe themselves as 'church alumni,' those who used to attend church faithfully but no longer do so. ... Most of us regular churchgoers have an increasingly large group of church friends whose children grew up, moved to new locations, and have not found congregations that address their spiritual needs. There seems to be a paucity of congregations that understand the complexity of our world. As Margaret Wheatley puts it, 'We want our organizations [read "churches"] to be adaptive, flexible, self-renewing, resilient, learning, intelligent--attributes that are found only in living [open] systems.' Instead, these seekers find congregations that are largely closed into a comfortable way of serving those who are still active there. ..."

To read the entire article, go to http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=5382 .

5. Thanks to Douglas Dee for Cindy Wooden's Catholic News Service article, "Vatican says 'Baptisms' using 'Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier' not Valid," which says (for " in the name of the Creator, Liberator and Sustainer" as well as "in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier"):

"If either formula -- recently initiated in North America to avoid referring to the Trinity with masculine names -- was used, the person is not yet formally a Christian and any subsequent sacraments the person received also are invalid... The most serious practical consequences... are likely to be seen in the area of marriage where no sacrament exists if both spouses had been baptized with an invalid formula. Even if only one of the spouses had been baptized with an invalid formula, there still is no valid sacrament of matrimony unless before the wedding the couple had obtained the dispensation needed for a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Christian... "

My first thought on reading this article [online at http://www.catholic.org/ national/national_story.php?id=27028 ] was that this is a very Navajo approach to religious language.

The article ends with a statement from Monsignor Antonio Miralles saying that the problem with the substituted terminology is not the fact that they don't identify Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as male; it's that "they do not make clear the relationship among the three distinct persons" of the Trinity.

6. In the context of item #5, see also "The Pope rules out feminist theology," by Malcolm Moore, at http://tinyurl.com/27kesw . Here's a sample:

"The Vatican has cracked down on feminist interpretations of the liturgy, ruling that God must always be recognised as Our Father. In a move designed to counter the spread of gender-neutral phrases, the Holy See said that anyone baptised using alternative terms, such as 'Creator', 'Redeemer' and 'Sanctifier' would have to be re-baptised using the traditional ceremony. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said yesterday: 'These variations arise from so-called feminist theology and are an attempt to avoid using the words Father and Son, which are held to be chauvinistic."

My thanks to Cindy Brown for the copy.

7. In "What Do Publishers Mean By 'Emergent'?", by Jana Riess, in the _London Book Fair_ newsletter for 4/14-16/08, Riess says of "emergents" that they are...

"interested in postmodernism, and want to explore how to be Christian in today's pluralistic world. They are especially keen on rethinking the Christian gospel through story and experience rather than dogma. They want to reach out to the unchurched... They want to simplify Christian trappings, sometimes foregoing buildings in favor of small house churches that take communion alfresco by downing grape juice in Styrofoam cups with the homeless. You get the idea."

But, she says, books and press releases that have been coming her way lately are mis-using the "emergent" label. "Some are authored by megachurch pastors, and since Emergent folks are to megachurches what locally grown organic vegetables are to fast food, I've learned to be suspicious... What it _should_ mean is some of what I discussed above. What it increasingly means is this: _The following book was written by a Protestant male under the age of 40. He probably has a goatee. He definitely wears eyeglasses that are much cooler than yours_."

To read the full article, go to http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/ CA6540345.html?nid=2287 .

8. My thanks to Patricia Mathews for sending me "The Bible as Graphic Novel, With a Samurai Stranger Called Christ," by Neela Banerjee [_NY Times_ for 2/10/08], at http://tinyurl.com/3da94k . It begins:

"Ajinbayo Akinsiku wants the world to know Jesus Christ, just not the gentle, blue-eyed Christ of old Hollywood movies and illustrated Bibles. Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is "a samurai stranger who's come to town..." here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged versin of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels."

Akinsiku is the author of the _Manga Bible_, which publisher Doubleday says has sold 30,000 copies in the UK, and about which the Archbishop of Canterbury "is quoted as saying that 'It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.' " His next project will be a manga life of Christ.

9. We are all familiar with religious blogs. And I admire their bloggers, because the level of emotional -- and often hostile -- discourse those blogs have to deal with would intimidate me into silence in a hurry. However, this item strikes me as something totally new in the genre:

"The blog site, http://www.allaboutusbooks.net , went live on Monday with a chatty post from 'Lissa,' a fictional teen whose exploits... will be featured in the first novel of the series... Lissa's troubles with boys, fashionistas, and fitting in with the trust-fund set may sound like Gossip Girls, and indeed it is -- with a Christian twist, since the books deal with questions of faith."

The source is "Hachette Launches Blog Site for YA Fiction Series," by Jana Riess, who reports that "Hachette will have the five main characters in its new All About Us YA series begin blogging."

10. My enthusiastic recommendations for a Jill Owens interview with author Jodi Picoult, at http://tinyurl.com/3ywc87 . It's hard to choose quotes from this one, because there's so much good material, but the choices do have to be made, and I've settled on these two.

"When you get down to the bare bones, especially of Christianity, Jesus historically was a Jew who was trying to find a better way of doing things because Judaism wasn't working for him! [_Laughter_] So what did he do? He went and explored something else. Again, there's this historical basis to ask questions and to question authority in a way that leads you to a deeper exploration and understanding. That, to me, Jesus the man, totally would have endorsed."

"I've read the gospels many, many times, in addition to the Gnostic gospels, and John is a weird gospel. It's vitally different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke -- which of course, it should be said, were not written by Matthew, Mark, or Luke. When Iraenaeus picked those four gospels, he picked Matthew, Mark, and Luke because they were all based on something called the Quelle gospel, which is an original document that is a sort of narrative commentary of the history of Jesus' actual, physical life. The fourth gospel, John, he picked because he knew this guy who had known the guy who wrote John. [_Laughter_] And he decided that was a good enough reason to include it as what he called the fourth pillar of the throne of Christianity."

11. We have YouTube -- and we also have GodTube, founded by Chris Wyatt. YouTube's slogan is "Broadcast Yourself"; GodTube's slogan is "Broadcast Him." [The slogan is an example of theology being overpowered by grammar; English forces a choice of "Him" or "Her," despite the fact that biological gender is not a characteristic that can be applied meaningfully to the Almighty. The obvious solution -- making the slogan "Broadcast God" -- presumably doesn't fit into Chris Wyatt's religious worldview.] You can read about GodTube in "GodTube.com: Jesus 2.0 Has Arrived," by Dmitry Kiper, at http://www.alternet.org/story/76226 . Sample:

"One series parodies the Mac versus PC ads, but here the cool guy is a 'Christ-follower' and the nerd in a suit is a 'Christian.' The Christian listens to Christian music, has Christian bumper stickers, and wear a WWJD (what would Jesus do) bracelet. The Christ-follower, although not against any of those things, say 'I just try to follow Christ in the way I live my life.' The video, says Dr. [Ann] Pellegrini, is an attempt to rebrand followers of Jesus as being 'cool outsiders.' "

12. Excerpted from two brief reviews in _Religion BookLine_ for 1/16/08:

a. For Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's _Jesus for President_, published by Zondervan...

"Here is the must-read election-year book for Christian Americans. What should Christians do when allegiances to the state clash with personal faith? Haw and Claiborne... slice through politics as usual and well past the superficial layers of the culture wars with their lucid exploration of how Christians can and should relate to presidents and kings, empire and government. Their entertaining yet provocative tour of the Bible's social and economic order makes even the most abstruse Levitical laws come alive for our era. They also provide a valuable political context for Christ's life, reminding readers that Jesus did not preach the need to put God back into government -- he urged his followers to live by a different set of rules altogether, to hold themselves apart as peculiar people. ... The pages are a riot of textured callouts, colors, photos and fonts -- the perfect packaging for a message that must compete in a world of sound bites."

b. For Kimberly Winston's _Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads_, published by Morehouse...

"Part history, part missal and part crafting how-to, this is a treasure trove of faith and spiritual contemplation. Winston... takes readers on a fascinating journey through the tradition of prayer beads. From the third century B.C. through the late 20th century, she touches on a variety of world religions... A thorough introduction to both the Catholic and Anglican rosaries, complete with stunning photographs and instructional diagrams, rounds out the historical portion of the text. The second part, which is even more inviting, reveals myriad ways to use the tactile to reach the spiritual. ... Practically, the final section provides the nitty-gritty of tools, materials and techniques necessary for creating individual rosaries and chains, complete with resources for choosing and finding particular types of beads."

13. I want to strongly recommend to you a review by Damon Linker titled "The Idolatry of America," for Charles Marsh's book _Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity_, online at http://tinyurl.com/3s9zzk. The review is polemic in tone, but it contains a great deal of material specifically on the topic of religious language. Here is a sample to give you an idea of the approach Linker takes:

"Unlike most books about the religious right, positive or negative, 'Wayward Christian Soldiers' is addressed primarily to the movement's most devoted members. Accordingly, much of the book is written in a prophetic register, alternating between rebuke and exhortation, as Marsh tries to persuade his readers of the enormity of their transgressions. He employs a rhetoric of outraged denunciation most effectively in his introduction, where he recounts visiting a Christian bookstore near his home in the spring of 2003.... The store was stocked with 'a full assortment of patriotic accessories -- red-white-and-blue ties, bandanas, buttons, handkerchiefs, 'I support our troops' ribbons, 'God Bless America' gear, and an extraordinary cross and flag bangle with the two images welded together and interlocked.' By the cash registers, he found numerous books about the faith of George W. Bush. In Marsh's words, 'It looked like a store getting ready for the Fourth of July, although Easter was just weeks away." The problem with such displays is not simply that they blur Christian piety with patriotism, but also that the patriotism is highly partisan. It is not all of America, or even most of America, that these godly patriots love."

14. Cyberplaces to visit: An excerpt from Bruce Lipton's book _The Biology of Belief_, at http://www.brucelipton.com , suggested by Diana Cook; and "Hair Care Blasphemy And Predatory Text," by Geoffrey K. Pullum, at http:// itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005449.html#more .

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