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Every year, Jews celebrate Passover, the Festival of Freedom, often using the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the holiday’s themes: oppression, freedom, and liberation. When I was growing up, our synagogues and schools urged us to remember the refuseniks, Jews who had been denied exit visas by Soviet authorities. In more recent years,…

Given that I can’t resist any television drama that features vampires, ghosts, all things-spooky and/or with vampire-like immortality, I’ve watched the entire first season of “New Amsterdam” on Fox with interest, if not unbridled enthusiasm. The season finale is tonight. My lukewarm feelings about the show–for which I am certainly the intended audience (see above)–have…

I love “Bones.” Love it. I love the series title character, Dr. Temperance Brennan (Bones), I love her fellow science geeks at the lab, and I love her ambiguous, potentially-romantic relationship with the very Catholic Seeley Booth, the FBI agent who plucks Bones from her lab work to solve murder cases each week. It’s back…

Who would have thought that the saucy, sassy, soapy “Desperate Housewives” would have returned after a strike-imposed hiatus with a smart and spiritual storyline? Definitely not me. I tuned in last night out of curiosity over any new programming, and I waited for the show to slip into some kind of mockery of church and…

With the launch of Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest collection of short stories, “Unaccustomed Earth” her readings all over the country have been sold out. Lahiri, an author in the literary genre, has become so popular that Knopf has reportedly printed 300,000 copies of her latest book, similar to the amount of copies printed for books by…

In case you haven’t heard the good news, Beliefnet has been nominated for a super cool Webby Award in the Religion and Spirituality catagory. Click here to check out the other sites we’re up against. And, most importantly, be sure to click here to vote for us. You’ll have to register to vote, which we…

The Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama holds 1500 of the country’s most violent offenders. Inmates there have been convicted of murder in every degree among other senseless acts of extreme violence that will haunt the victims’ (and the inmates’) families for years. Donaldson houses it all. Besides wondering myself whether such criminals can ever…

Five years ago Thomas Nelson Publishers took a chance on a relatively unknown author, Donald Miller, and published a slightly unorthodox memoir, “Blue Like Jazz.” The word of mouth for the raw and reflective anecdotes in the book soon had “Jazz” on the New York Times best-seller list, receiving praise from evangelical and secular circles.…

She’s sassy and flirtatious, vivacious and mischievous. I’m not writing about Hollywood’s next ingénue du jour, I’m actually referring to 92-year old Eileen Hall, one of the most captivating members of ‘”Young@Heart,” a new film from Fox Searchlight about a New England senior citizens chorus of the same name that covers songs by everyone from…

Last year’s “Idol Gives Back” was an exciting experiment in charitable giving with a delightful roughness around the edges and a pioneering spirit. This year the “Idol” team produced a slick telethon with a vast array of stars and even a contestant-laden phone bank luring fans to call in and donate. The show itself was…
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