Palm Sunday

Churches were filled today for Palm Sunday.  Did you know that at times in the distant past when palm fronds were scarce that it was called "Branch Sunday"?  Today, hundreds of millions of palm fronds are harvested every year for US church ceremonies. 
The number is so large that major newspapers have picked up [...]

The Talibanization of Paradise in Pakistan

The Jerusalem Post has an article by Shaheen Buneri called "The Talibanization of Paradise."  It’s worth a read.  Here’s a brief glimpse: "Swat [in Pakistan], peaceful beauty, land of color, roses and gushing rivers, rich in history, home to myriads of Buddhist stupas, idyllic spot for glorious Pashtun traditions of love, peace, and hospitality, until [...]

Jesus Surfer

It’s Christmas!  And that’s why there are Jesus surfer figurines in the world:

These are the creations of Eric Dyson.  This one is called "I Am Spirit."  You can visit this page to see a number of his other creations, including Harley Jesus ("I Am Freedom").
The surfer Jesus was also mentioned in the Denver Post article [...]

Honda wants you to rejoice with the van gods and just to respect their van

Last year, this ad from Honda appeared in the July issue of Real Simple magazine:

It was meant to appeal to women with families, but I wondered if they had kind of missed their market a bit.  They were even afraid to use the words "Van Gods" without the caps and without the quotation marks.  Were [...]

Korean funerary figures ~ Journey to Grave, Dance to Paradise

Laurel Kendall of the American Museum of Natural History gave a speech on Wednesday night in conjunction with the Korea Society.  The title of the talk was “Journey to the Grave, Dance to Paradise: Shamanic Rituals for the Dead” (available here in MP3 format).  The speech helps to mark the opening of a new exhibit [...]

“Welcome to Paradise” ~ a spiritually defunct town

A 2006 feel-good, faith-based film called “Welcome to Paradise” will be released on DVD in early October. It stars Crystal Bernard, of Wings fame, and Brian Dennehy. The premise of the movie is that a pastor from the big city is called to move to the small town of “Paradise” (yes, there are [...]

His Next Lei ~ Ted Haggard on His Knees Again

Not since this last lei has Ted Haggard dropped so hard to his knees—this time begging for cash. He apparently says that he and his wife just need people to help them get by with their monthly expenses for two years of education until they can take up residence at the faith-based Phoenix Dream Center. [...]

Beaches not Bombs ~ Lebanon Parties On

Reuters has an article called “Beach frolics eclipse politics in war-weary Lebanon.” Beaches will conquer all?
From the article:

Young Ukrainian models in flimsy lingerie spray champagne at aboisterous crowd of young Lebanese at a swanky beach resortsouth of Beirut — barely a year after Israeli bombs were fallingnearby.
Drinks in hand, shapely women in skimpy bikinis dance [...]