03 Oct
Arts & Culture, Latest, Moment Magazine

Online Exclusive Film Watch: Religulous

Read the current issue's Film Watch on Sixty Six, here. "Religion must die for mankind to live." When Bill Maher resolutely declares this in his new documentary Religulous (a subtle blending of the words "religion" and "ridiculous"), you can't help but cringe. Whether or not you consider yourself to be religious, it's something you just don't say out loud. It's just wrong, right? But of course, it's a concept that many have secretly questioned at some point. Wouldn't things just be so much easier if religion didn't exist? The film is full of cringe-worthy moments, as Maher bombards each person he interviews with intense questioning, often to the point where the person becomes so flustered that Maher is asked to leave. He's on a quest to call into question people's blind faith. Maher just doesn't understand how intelligent,...

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11 Sep
Latest

Rabbis for Obama

Over 300 American rabbis publicly announced their support for Barack Obama yesterday with the launch of a “Rabbis for Obama” website. The movement was founded by Rabbis Sam Gordon and Steve Bob of Illinois in response to what they call the “smear campaign against Obama” that “has been waged in the Jewish community.” “The smears and lies are specifically targeted to the fears and prejudices of Jews,” Gordon said in a phone interview this morning. “The kind of attacks and criticisms of him are totally unwarranted and caused me and others to respond in a way unprecedented in the history of Jewish rabbis.” While Gordon and Bob both belong to the Union for Reform Judaism, they say rabbinical support for Obama—and for their movement—comes from across the spectrum. Indeed, Gordon, who met Obama in small group settings during the...

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04 Sep
Latest

Some of My Best Friends are…Lutheran?

When Sarah Palin ran for mayor in 1996, she apparently floated the possibility that her political opponent was an M.O.T. ("member of the tribe")—and the tribe in question wasn't Inuit. Kudos to the New York Times for conducting on-the-tundra reporting that might have behooved the McCain campaign during the full day or two it allowed for vetting the potential Next-in-Line. The resulting examination of Palin's meteoric rise in the GOP describes how McCain's "soul mate" roiled the previously non-partisan arena of Wasilla town politics by introducing wedge issues having little to do with sewers, schools or municipal bonds—issues like guns, abortion and religion. And she got personal about it, too, according to her opponent, three-time incumbent Jeff Stein. Stein told the Times: "I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first...

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