News for October 6

Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess  |  Time

While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.” The results, he says, “were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.”

• Related link: Mortgaging Souls  |  GetReligion

After the Vice Presidential Debate  |  Brookings Institute

The vice presidential face-off is behind us, but two more presidential debates lie ahead. Brookings presidential expert Stephen Hess says that televised debates are entertainment, providing voters a glimpse into the candidates’ demeanor, but little of their substance.

• Related link: In Defense of Knowledge  |  Mixed Race America

Brand Obama or Brand McCain?  |  Brand Papers

The sum total of images, words, style, body language, tone of voice, gestures, strengths, and weaknesses will be what people will buy, or not, when deciding on the Obama and McCain brand for the White House.

There’s Gold in Them Melting Glaciers  |  Salon

To hear Al Gore and the Union of Concerned Scientists talk, global warming is one of the worst catastrophes ever to befall humankind. But for Betchart and a growing number of other companies worldwide, climate change is more of a mixed bag. It may be bad for the planet, but it’s giving rise to windfalls unimaginable during cooler times. Tourist jaunts to Warming Island are just the tip of the iceberg (literally!), as the Arctic thaw has attracted a vast range of profit seekers, including real-estate investors, shipping firms and oil magnates.

Religulous: Preaching to a Choir of Angry Secularists  |  Rabbi Brad Hirschfield’s Windows & Doors

Religulous misses the fact that while religion is among the most effective tools for mobilizing the ugliest stuff inside us and rationalizing some of the most hateful and violent acts, it also does the opposite. There is no force in human experience which has evoked the capacity for love, hope and altruism like religion. Missing that, makes Maher and Religulous a great deal like the blind man holding the elephant’s tusk and describing the animal as hard and smooth. He is 100% correct about 20% of the elephant.