Recently in Politics Category

CNN and other outlets are reporting today that "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will be ending after 25 seasons.

The last show will be coming up soon: on September 9, 2011.

Okay, so it's not so soon! Mrs. Winfrey has followed the path of evening talk show host Jay Leno, the host of "The Tonight Show" from 1992-2009. To remove speculation about the potential of him moving to another network, or about what would happen with Conan O'Brien, the succession plan was announced well in advance of his May, 2009 departure from the show. Mrs. Winfrey's announcement comes almost two years before her show will actually end.

I have several questions and reactions to the news:

Wow! Sometimes it takes the end of something to appreciate how amazing it's been. According to the Oprah.com website, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has been the highest-rated talk show for 23 consecutive seasons, being seen by 42 million viewers a week in the United States and 145 other countries. It has spun off "Oprah's Book Club," "O" Magazine, Oprah.com, "Oprah's Angel Network," Harpo Films and a host of other associations.

More Than a Show. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is more than a show. It's an institution. It's a movement. It's a congregation. It's a marketing animal. It's the home base of a much larger media empire. While most talk shows ("Larry King Live," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "Late Night With David Letterman, etc.) attract media leaders who are releasing a book, movie, campaign or public relations message, Oprah's endorsement has turned unknown people into household names, including Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson. She has helped turn unknown gadgets into everyday must-haves . She once urged her audience to read Leo Tolstoy's"Anna Karenina," and the ancient Russian classic shot to the top of the Best-Seller list.

The widely anticipated "Book of Genesis Illustrated" penned by R. Crumb, the famous comic book artist and graphic novelist released yesterday and the backlash from Christian groups and churches has already begun.

I first heard about R. Crumb's foray into turning Genesis into a graphic novel last spring at Book Expo America, the largest annual book fair in the US, where Norton (his publisher) was pushing it hard. The visual depictions they had available were stunning and made me pretty excited to see what the rest would be like. Then yesterday, I came across a very balanced, positive review of "Book of Genesis Illustrated" on Religion Dispatches. Gabriel Mckee writes not only about Crumb's interpretive decisions with the text, but about how he was not playing around with this sacred book by any sense of the term:

"Far from the sharp satire that one might expect from the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, Genesis is a remarkably straight, even reverent, adaptation. In his introduction, Crumb explains that he avoided adding interpretation or clearing up confusing passages, leaving the Bible as is "rather than monkey around with such a venerable text... I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes." He notes the irony that devout, didactic Bible comics creators are more willing to play around with scripture by inserting "completely made up narrative and dialogue," while he, a non-believer, lets the text speak for itself."

Mckee goes on to add that, "The design of the book's jacket belies the seriousness of its contents."

Are gore and ghosts ungodly? For years Hollywood has been eyeing the huge audiences in two of the most populous Muslim nations in the world. But now legislators in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia--both densely populated, with moderate Muslim majorities are raising obstacles, insisting on quotas on foreign films and talking about banning horror flicks as unIslamic.

Those of you who haven't followed Kirk Cameron since he was that lovable scamp Mike Seaver on "Growing Pains" might not be aware that the actor has most recently become a spokesperson for evangelical Christian initiatives, including his latest, coming just in time for Darwin Day.

On November 21, Darwin's "Origin of Species" celebrates its 150th anniversary. In a video on YouTube, Cameron announced that he is circulating his own, newly edited version of Darwin's seminal work - with a 50 page introduction that frames the intelligent design argument. His intentions are framed as concern for the widespread atheism among Americans which is "radically changing the culture of our nation." This is possible because the book - like others copyrighted before 1923 - is now considered public domain.

It's not news that Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. He's admitted as much on his Comedy Channel show, "The Colbert Report." (Besides, even with the best hairstylists in television at your disposal, you can't fake that precisely parted, altar-boy-grown-up hair-do.)

But in an interview in the current Rolling Stone, Colbert gives us a rare glimpse of his beliefs. As a Catholic believer, Colbert regards himself as "highly variable in [his] devotion," he tells interviewer Neil Strauss. "From ... a strictly Catholic adherent point of view, I'm first to say that I talk a good game, but I don't know how good I am about it in practice," Colbert admits.