American Soundings

American Soundings

Rodney Clapp explores the religious dimensions of popular culture

A theological rationale for government

Human depravity necessitates accountability
Nov 18, 2008 by Rodney Clapp
The frightening downturn on Wall Street has caused even some staunch antigovernment pundits to begin rethinking their assumption that all government regulation is bad. That is a rethinking this country desperately needs.

In the autumn shadows

God gomes to us
Oct 21, 2008 by Rodney Clapp
Autumn arrives September 22 (in the Northern Hemisphere). If you are like me, you depart reluctantly from summer, the season of light. Fall carries intimations of death—leaves dry and shrivel, grass bleaches corpse-pale, insects perish, squirrels batten down their nests and fatten up for a long season of lethargy.

Lessons from Batman

Can we live with justice, peace and truth?
Sep 23, 2008 by Rodney Clapp
Every Batman story explores the nature of good and evil—or more specifically the often blurry line between the two. The Dark Knight takes the Batman-Everyman story in fresh directions, ones germane to a world confronted with terrorism. The movie raises the question: What is worse or more demonic: a terrorist with principles (even if that principle is nothing grander than accumulating more and more money) or one without?