Few will argue the claim that the bar for “faith-based” films has been set woefully low in recent years. So much so that even non-Christian, non-religious Americans have heard about (and likely snickered at) projects such as Fireproof and the Left Behind series.

Then there was the recent hullabaloo surrounding Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. Christian commentators have spent the past few weeks engaged in a frame-by-frame lambasting of Paramount Pictures’ re-telling of the great flood story. Little was achieved amidst the rhetorical onslaught, apart from the chance for folks with theology degrees to finally seem cool.

And now, as we approach Easter and the summer movie season behind it, what’s a God-fearing American moviegoer to do?

Well, first – don’t make all decisions on whether or not you should go see a movie based solely on the stamp of approval from your favorite religious publication or website. Trust, but…

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Last fall, I posted on the issue of Native American nicknames and imagery in sports, wondering if the tide had turned on public opinion regarding their appropriateness in a civil, pluralist society in today’s world.  The Washington Redskins were front and center in that piece, but now it is baseball season, and the Cleveland Indians find themselves at the crux of the debate.  Ever more so after this photo was captured at the Indians’ home opener:

What’s going on here? The man on the left is Chiricahua Apache tribal member Robert Roche, who serves as executive director of the American Indian Education Center in Cleveland.  The man on the write is Pedro Rodriguez, a rather passionate Indians fan.  Roche was outside the stadium before the game with a group of protesters calling for the baseball club in Cleveland to retire their Chief Wahoo logo.  As…

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The mobile app Tinder has a tag line on its webpage: This is how people meet.  It’s like real life, but better. 

The video on its homepage showcases a group of beautiful female friends out having fun in a nondescript city.  One brunette spots an attractive guy while she is out and they exchange an extended glance with one another.  After more adventures with her girlfriends, the girl pulls out her phone, sees a picture of the guy she spotted that afternoon on the app, swipes to the right, and reads “It’s a Match!” on her screen.  The two meet up on what seems to be a date, and the video fades to black.

After getting a tutorial in Tinder from my friends who use the app, I did some reading up on its origin and its use among college students and young adults.   I’m more than convinced…

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Denver’s Julie Geller lives a thoughtful and melodic life. The singer-songwriter not only writes and sings her own music in English and Hebrew, but also teaches, in addition to raising three kids with her husband. She recently agreed to speak with Acculturated about her music and being an artist:

What inspired you to sing professionally?

In 10th grade, a friend played a chord, and within a month, I was writing songs. At Harvard, I tried to find people to perform my music but never could. Junior year, I bought a guitar and taught myself to play. I couldn’t find a singer, so I started singing. I always thought my strength was songwriting, and I didn’t want to perform. Over time though, I’ve realized it’s important for me to sing my songs. The soul of the music is what people connect to when they hear me sing.

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Considering America largely invented mass media, we’re awfully provincial about it. Perhaps that’s why this remarkable interview U2 front man Bono, a.k.a. Paul Hewson, gave to Irish Broadcaster RTE last year is just now popping up all over American websites. In it, Bono says he regularly prays to Jesus Christ and studies Scripture to know the will of God, believes Jesus Christ was the literal Son of God, and believes in the resurrection, as well as miracles in general.

Now reconciling Bono’s professed Christianity with his profession as bombastic rock star has always been a bit of a challenge, considering his belief system places a premium on humility. It brings to mind an old joke. Shortly after dying, a man finds himself standing at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter appears and says, much to the delight of the man who was a big music fan in…

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After nearly a decade of being in subversive, faux-conservative character, Stephen Colbert is packing his basic cable bags and heading to the big show.

From TIME.com:

Stephen Colbert will take over as host of the Late Show when David Letterman retires, CBS announced Thursday.

Colbert, the host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report since 2005, was rumored to be CBS’s top choice to replace its iconic late night host. Letterman said last week on his show that he will retire in 2015, ending more than three decades in late night.

“Stephen Colbert is one of the most inventive and respected forces on television,” CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

A graduate of Northwestern University, and the youngest of eleven siblings in a devout Catholic family from just outside of Charleston, SC, Colbert has worked his way up the comedy ranks and now stares the potential…

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There is a great virtue to American Fun: Four Centuries of Joyous Revolt, the new book by John Beckman. That virtue is that American Fun strives to be about more than nostalgia.  This isn’t a book by a man rhapsodizing about the kicks of his youth, but rather a well-researched argument that America is objectively a less fun country than it used to be.

Beckman defines fun as two things. One is “risk, transgression, mockery, rebellion” – i.e., poking the eye of the establishment. The other, which isn’t necessarily separate from the first, is “the fun of pranks, lewd dances, wild parties and tough competitions that unites the crowd in common joy.” People who break rules to have fun often find their fun becoming accepted – early rock and rollers, comedians like Richard Pryor who confronted racism, 1960s fashion designers who broke away from Mad Men rules about how…

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Ask anyone to name a teenage pop music sensation with a wild mane of dark hair and an offbeat artistic vision, and these days the answer you most likely will hear is “Lorde,” the 17-year-old New Zealander of “Royals” fame. But decades before Lorde, there was English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, whose rather reclusive nature and infrequent recording output eventually took her largely out of the public eye – until recently, when she announced her first series of live performances in 35 years.

The quiet, contemplative Lorde, whom Acculturated has discussed before, seems wise beyond her years and more serious about lyrically elevating pop music than are some of her well-known, corporately-packaged peers. With only one album under her belt – Pure Heroine – she’s already made her transformative mark with her whole career ahead of her.

She hasn’t publicly counted Kate Bush among her influences, which interestingly seem as literary (American short story…

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Feminists are furious with actress Kirsten Dunst. She is being trashed online as “an insufferable person”, “kind of dumb”, and other harsh, expletive-laden phrases unfit for print.

Her sin? During a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, Dunst dared to speak well of femininity, including the traditional role of a nurturing mother:

“’I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued,” she says. “We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work…’”

In response, writer Ariane Sommer told Fox 411: “Being open towards being what is considered feminine at times: Yes! But regressing to a…

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One of my favorite movie quotes about sports comes from the film Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. After a professional golfer makes fun of the brilliant golfer for not getting paid, Bobby Jones replies, “I’m an amateur, Mr. Mullen. Do you know what the origin of that word is? It’s from the Latin root, ‘to love.’ To be an amateur is to love the game. Once you play for money you can’t call it love anymore.”

How many modern athletes feel that way about amateurism? Not many, it would appear. Lately, calls for NCAA athletes to get paid have come frequently and loudly. The Chicago District of the National Labor Relations board just allowed Northwestern football players to unionize.

There are definitely some good arguments given for athletes to get paid (to be clear, they’d be paid a salary in addition to whatever sports scholarships they may…

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