A lot of the time, watching Christianity as it is portrayed in Western media feels like attending a particularly sombre funeral. “God’s Favourite Idiot,” a new Netflix comedy, isn’t just a comedy, and it isn’t just religious. It’s a combination of the two. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Religion and Culture’
“The Sopranos” back on our screens: A morality play for our day
Monday, November 8th, 2021“The Sopranos.” has recently gained a whole new audience, almost 15 years after its finale on HBO. New York Times’s Willy Staley says the show was prescient in a way that sheds light on our specific timeline. “But I think it deals with a theme that never stopped being relevant, namely, salvation. And did I Read more
Bishop marks 75th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s birth
Monday, September 6th, 2021Bishop David Oakley was a guest on OJ Borg’s midnight show to “Pause for Thought” on BBC Radio 2, which was marking what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 75th birthday. The bishop of Northampton says the 1984 song I Want to Break Free, concerns some fundamental features of the human condition; feeling trapped, loneliness, freedom Read more
Less time at funerals – more time at school
Thursday, June 13th, 2019
Pika Purotu and her priest, the Reverend Fakaofo Kaio of the Onehunga Cooperating Parish, are campaigning for children to spend less time attending funerals and more time attending school. They say children should spend a maximum of three days at a funeral – and only if the deceased is a member of their immediate family. Read more
Coca-Cola is used in religious ceremonies in this church
Thursday, August 30th, 2018The “Coca-Cola Church,” which is really called St. John the Baptist, sits in the heart of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas. As Dan Bobkoff reports in Business Insider’s new podcast, “Household Name,” the church service mixes Catholicism with a local religion, and it’s said that parishioners at the church believe that burping purges evil from Read more
Don’t mix religion with politics – Bainimarama
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Fiji’s prime minister prime Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama says it is inappropriate to mix religion with politics. He said some other political parties are engaging preachers in campaigns and also electing them as proposed candidates but this will not happen in the FijiFirst party. “To see a talatala (church minister) talking or backing a political party, Read more
Religion increasingly privatised in PNG
Tuesday, August 11th, 2015
Religion in Papua New Guinea is being increasingly privatised and there is an increasing loss of Christian values in public life says Fr Boniface Holz. “A common sign of this secularization is the emergence of social, political, and economical spheres in which religious influence is declining.” Boniface says the Papua New Guinea constitution has two Read more