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Each year on December 13th, Swedes celebrate the feast of Santa Lucia, a festival marked by candlelight (Lucia means light) at one of the darkest times of winter in this northern country. The day still finds young girls donning crowns of lit candles to represent the celebrated saint (a fire hazard waiting to happen, yes,…

Though I’ve never been to the Oscars or the Emmys (except in my dreams, where I imagine I am tall, skinny, blonde and my name is Nancy O’Dell), I did finally get to attend my first real red- carpet event for the Nashville premiere of “Chronicles of Narnia.” Since several of the contemporary Christian music…

Think John Lennon and religion, and what springs to mind is his loose-cannon observation in 1966 that “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” (which led radio stations to sponsor record burnings and others to make death threats) and assorted jibes Lennon took at organized religion in his two books. On the political site Counterpunch…

“Law & Order” takes such care to get New York right–its people, its cultures, its attitude–that I am always surprised when it messes up the small stuff. Last night’s episode revolved around a synagogue that couldn’t seem to decide whether it was Orthodox or Reform. Perpetually-yarmulked men and head-covered women who talk like they went…

With all of the “Narnia” movie premiere hype going on, which my fellow bloggers have been commenting on eloquently, I had to laugh when my friend–and author of her own book connected to “Chronicles”–Sarah Arthur, sent me an article on Aslan that made my day. Freelance writer Mary Beth Ellis dares to suggest that we…

At yesterday’s Billboard Music Awards, rapper Kanye West was presented with one of the industry’s highest honors, the “Artist Achievement Award.” In his acceptance speech, the “Jesus Walks” superstar said, “When I first came out I was a hot head–I thought I was the greatest. I still think I’m the greatest.” If Jesus was at…

So Mel Gibson is making a Holocaust movie. As the New York Times reports, Gibson’s production company is in the early stages of producing an ABC miniseries based on the memoirs of a Dutch Jew who was hidden and saved by her Christian neighbors. Though it’s not clear how much he’ll be involved personally, I’m…

Talk about your crossover artists! Matisyahu, born Matthew Miller, has been taking the reggae world by storm–which might not be so unusual, except for the fact that he’s a Hasidic Jew who sings/raps about the Jewish experience. Check out the lyric to his hit “King Without a Crown”: “Torah food for my brain let it…

The excitement in the conservative Christian community over the forthcoming movie of C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is matched only by the hysterics the “Christianization” of Narnia is causing elsewhere. In Salon today, Laura Miller asks, “Can we still cherish the books without believing in their most obvious message?” The obvious…

One of the best movies of the year was not exactly a box office knock-out when it played in theaters this past summer, but the Depression-era rags-to-riches story “Cinderella Man” is now out on DVD, just in time to begin campaigning for Oscar nominations in January. “Cinderella Man” is the true story of boxer James…
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