Tag: Entertainment & Pop Culture

The box office hit “The Conjuring” has all the requisite features of a standard horror flick: creaky doors, mysterious things that go bump in the night, creepy dolls and a dead witch who seizes the body of an unsuspecting mother.

It also has an unexpected background character for a horror film: God.

Producers of the latest reboot of the “Superman” franchise famously marketed the movie to Christian audiences. Makers of the new “Lone Ranger” movie, not so much.

There’s a reason for that. If “Man of Steel” panders to Christians, in “The Lone Ranger,” Christians are portrayed as unattractive, ineffectual, hateful or flat-out hypocritically evil.

I have a confession. Please don’t hate me. I know this will be a terrible shock to some of you, but I recently took my wife on a date to see "World War Z." Yes, that’s the new Brad Pitt movie about a war fought against billions of humans who get infected with a virus, die and then come back as zombies.

An American myth says that happiness is some sort of leisure activity: a well-stock trout stream; a sunny beach; a golf game on the coast. It’s what we all look forward to in retirement or striking it rich in the lottery. But how many, after achieving their dreams, only find disillusionment? How many, after finding fame, turn to drugs and alcohol for comfort?

You know and love them from your favorite shows – but, do you know what they believe in? Here's a look at 10 religious television show characters, including what they say when they talk about their beliefs.

Meet Amanda, Casey, Ashlee, Chanel, Joey and Erica. They spend their time and their parents’ money shopping for designer labels, searching for rich husbands and lounging by the pool with a glass of wine in hand.

They’re self-admitted “Jewish American Princesses,” and Bravo’s built a whole reality series, “Princesses: Long Island” around their exploits.

U2 frontman Bono exchanged Bible references and bantered about music, theology and evangelicals’ role in AIDS activism in a recent radio interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly.

Growing up in Ireland with a Protestant mother and a Catholic father, Bono imitated C.S. Lewis in “Mere Christianity,” where Lewis argued that Jesus was a lunatic, liar or Lord.