He’s ranting about this report, of which I am a co-author. I consider this a shining achievement and derive almost as much satisfaction from watching Glenn Beck’s hysterics over our survey as I did when I learned I was going to publish my first article.
My only regret: I didn’t make him cry! [...]

Yesterday morning I was reading the local paper when I came upon this story about Scientology (part 1 of 3). Apparently 4 fairly prominent members of the religion have defected over the last few years and the St. Petersburg Times finally got them to agree to be interviewed. The Times is rolling out [...]

Stolen Innocence
Author:
Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Date of Publication:
2008
ISBN:
978-0-06-162801-6
Rating:
7
Summary:
Stolen Innocence tells the story of Elissa Wall, a woman raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book starts out describing her childhood. She spent a large portion of it in the Salt Lake Valley with her biological father, Douglas Wall, [...]

Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture
Author:
Shirley R. Steinberg, Joe L. Kincheloe
Publisher:
Westview Press
Date of Publication:
2009
ISBN:
978-0813344058
Rating:
1/10
Summary:
The book purports to be an analysis of how Christianity and Christ have become part of popular culture in the US. I guess, in a sense, it is, but only in the sense that it’s a book that mentions Christ and [...]

I received an email from Michael Paulson, a religion reporter for The Boston Globe, yesterday asking me if I had time to talk about a new study coming out today.  The study is the latest wave of the American Religious Identification Survey.  Having worked with the principal investigators – Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar – [...]