By Dr. Sam Rader Greta Gerwig’s newest feminist film Barbie, produced by Mattel and co-written with her husband filmmaker Noah Baumbach, uplifts women while exalting the idiocrasy of men. Every male character in the film is portrayed as helpless and idiotic, from start to finish—all the Kens, the Mattel execs, even the man who plays America Ferrera’s husband (who happens to be her husband in real life). In Barbie, all men are treated as ridiculous and subhuman and in the end, this... Read more
I’m staring at a computer screen in my Colorado office one fine fall day in 2001 when the phone rings. “Hello, my name is Jack Heaslip,” says a voice with a foreign accent. “The boys in the band call me Father Jack, and I’m their chaplain.” He proceeds to tell me his role in helping to bring together four aimless souls at an Anglican school in the mostly-Catholic Republic of Ireland. They formed a garage band that went on to... Read more
On June 17, 2022, the Motion Picture Studios of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held a Media Day—inviting the press to observe the kickoff of the filming of the fifth and final season of the “Book of Mormon Video Series.” The first three seasons of this series can be found on YouTube or on the Book of Mormon app—and the fourth season will be released in both places in the fall of 2022. What’s unique about this... Read more
Saints are made, not born. They come from different faiths, homelands, and backgrounds to change the world for the better. We know these figures for the miracles they performed, the sacrifices they made, or the joy that they brought. But the transformations that turn ordinary people into saints are less well known. From Sin to Saint, the latest podcast from Pathos aims to change that. This series will explore the events and circumstances that transformed saints of all faiths from merely swimming in their cultural current to reshaping it for the better. Read more
By Dr. Sam Rader (Spoiler Alert) Several weeks ago, I wrote a post on Instagram: “I want to create a new martial art. When one opponent can coax the other to stop fighting, through gestures of love and affection, both parties win.” The new existential sci-fi movie Everything Everywhere All at Once directed by the Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) is the film I’ve been waiting and praying for a very long time. I believe the stories we tell... Read more
Catholic football fans may not realize how much their fellow believers have been involved in the history and success of American football. Read more
In his new Patheos series, Reclaiming Catholicism, Franciscan Priest, Fr. Casey Cole, examines some of the less understood and frequently sensationalized parts of Catholic history. Read more
By all accounts, a tiny fraction of those who have read or viewed The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings (LOTR) have been able to plow through The Silmarillion (Houghton Mifflin, 1977) assembled by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, Christopher, after his father’s death. Read more
How can religious faith help to stem the crisis of meaning in our world, a theme so vividly rendered in Joker? Read more
Years ago, as a young Greek Orthodox kid, I remember my parish Priest standing up and saying to our congregation, “We’re Christians. We should read the Bible.” And then he added, almost as an afterthought, “Start with the New Testament. The Old Testament is hard!” If you’ve read the Bible, I’m sure you can relate! Whether you’re a Christian seeking to better understand your religion’s theology and sacred narratives, or a practitioner of another faith tradition just trying to be... Read more
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