Christian Piatt's Blog, page 30

The Supreme Court’s Assault on Democracy

 On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations are persons, bestowing them with the same rights and privileges. Recently, the court lifted the ban on aggregate campaign donations allowing people (human beings or corporations) to donate to an unlimited number of political candidates. Corporations require [Read More...]

Lobster Hands, World Vision and Raising Babies (CultureCast)

Jess the Intern and Philip the Page show off their costuming skills for Zoe’s play, Christian talks about his new job with Crowd Scribed, and Amy can’t remember her Fear of the Week… again. I guess the world just isn’t nearly as scary as it used to be? In the echo chamber, the crew discusses the [Read More...]

Four Reasons Men Need Paternity Leave

I was saddened, but not entirely surprised, by the response New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy received from the sports world for taking the first couple games of the new season off to be with his family during the birth of his child. I was particularly disappointed with Boomer Esiason, retired football quarterback, who [Read More...]

How Do I Get My Book Published?

There’s self-publishing, and there are the big, traditional publishing houses. But what about a third way for the rest of us? And there are other questions: Do I need an agent? How do I distinguish my title from the millions of others out there? What exactly are the steps in the publishing process? How long [Read More...]

Church Sign Epic Fails, “Fuzzy Math” Edition

So many people claim to be bad at math, which is why I always pay anyone who does work for me in rainbows and belly button lint. So far, so good!

Sneaky Televangelists, Fred Phelps is Dead, and a Glut of God Flicks

This week we are honored to have NPR Religion Correspondent John Burnett return to the show to talk about his investigative series on televangelists and fiscal transparency: Can a Television Network be a Church? The IRS Says Yes. You may remember that John first appeared on the Culture Cast last year when he was in Portland [Read More...]

Daystar’s Day of Reckoning: My Interview with NPR’s John Burnett

I first got to know NPR correspondent John Burnett when he was in Portland doing a story about beer and theology. He was featuring the Beer and Hymns event that we do monthly at First Christian Church in Portland. This time around John has a two-part exposé on evangelical churches in the United States, and [Read More...]

The Dead Don’t Die; They Just Reboot

Religion has, for centuries, been fairly obsessed with the afterlife. For some, what awaits us after our physical death is fairly central to their faith. But thanks to the Internet, many of us end up having a sort of life after death, whether we intended to or not. In a recent article published in the New Yorker magazine, [Read More...]

What Rock & Roll and Religion Have in Common

I grew up with music in my life. At first, it was a combination of my dad’s Willie Nelson and Ray Charles with my mom’s old southern Gospel hymns. I’d sit under the piano, feeling the vibrations as she played “Blessed Assurance,” and then lie on the floor in front of the speakers as Ike [Read More...]

Malaysia, Marriage and Measles! (CultureCast)

We continue our time-tested tradition on the Homebrewed Christianity CultureCast about taking completely unrelated topics, digging into them, making a smart-ass joke and then pretty much leaving a bunch of loose ends when we’re all done. And you listen to this because… We talk this week about the Malaysian airliner that’s been missing for some [Read More...]