Sitemap - 2024 - Terry Mattingly -- Rational Sheep
A Thanksgiving flashback, after another sobering year
'Wicked' -- The Passion play of the cool true faith
OMG, this is way stranger than an AI boyfriend
Crossroads -- Things can get rough when reporters offend sources and readers
Flashback: Yes, 'Hunger Games' was a signal from our culture
Can AI robots offer advice that heals souls?
Walk on! Weekend thinkers about Rational Sheep topics
Crossroads -- What's ahead for pro-lifers with Trump 2.0?
G.K. Chesterton on zombies, sort of
Once again, it's time to pay attention to comedy
What happens to God if Marvel chooses to "repent"?
Crossroads -- 2024 exit polls were sort of "same old, same old"
Yes, this post is an advertisement for bookstores
More thinking about the Washington Post earthquake
Men are online, looking for sources of authority
Crossroads -- Somebody's supporters got trashed
Jeff Bezos tells readers: You don't own me
Writers are strange people, you know?
There's more to the Internet than porn
Crossroads -- Kamala Harris and the "Jesus is Lord" hecklers
A few moments with Sir Anthony Hopkins ...
Hollywood Christians: A large congregation?
TenNapel flashback: What made "Creature Tech" a movie in ink?
Crossroads -- News story? Half of Christian voters may stay home
Another contrarian (positive) take on "Rings of Power"
"The Rings of Power 2" -- Culture wars or mere streaming-era TV?
What did Al Pacino see when he almost died?
Crossroads -- Unbuckled belts in Dallas megachurches
Concerning another hurricane of media-bias chatter
The latest from Pew Research about parents, kids and ...
Why mountain people live (and worship) near rivers
Crossroads -- The faithful make real news during disasters
Climate-change Helene floods threaten Big Tech stocks!
No news? Massacres in Africa (and floods in my Southern Highlands)
Is it a good thing to limit screen time for kids?
Crossroads -- Young men are flocking into pews
Olympics '24: One lingering Last Supper wars question
Conan O'Brien: Ultimately, "We don't matter"
I dare you! Think back to your high-school years ...
Crossroads -- Parts of this land are your land, parts of this land are our land
Exorcists are making another cinema comeback
What is Substack, that thou art mindful of it?
Are all those digital screens beyond redemption?
Crossroads -- New York Times (#DUH) welcomed the Swiftie power play
Election '24: Yes, the Taylor Swift shoe finally dropped
The complicated path that led to Rational Sheep
Learning to spot the logic in the ads that surround us
Crossroads -- The ideas that led J.D. Vance to swim the Tiber
Digging deeper into spiritual issues in screens culture
Your new "friend" -- You knew this AI device would show up
Yes, 2017 was long ago in tech years, but ...
Crossroads: Modern, progressive young women flee pews!
Religious garb in public places, Part II
Jonathan Haidt's warnings for spiritual leaders
Disney Wars: $Billions at stake, as well as ...
Crossroads: Parsing Catholic prayers at the conventions
Camps and scouting vs. "screens culture"?
Life is starting to get crazy in tmatt land
So some teens locked up their smartphones (sort of) ...
Crossroads -- Christian profs fired because of "politics"?
Part II: What is "truth"? What is "news"?
Part I: The doctrines that built America's news silos
That 3D whale in your virtual headset: Is it real?
Crossroads -- Tim Walz is some kind of "Lutheran"
Should men of the cloth hang out ...
Bob Newhart -- A brilliant critic of chaos in ordinary life
Vatican learns about online-poll questions
Crossroads -- Why are young priests more conservative?
Another subtle religious signal at Paris 2024
Does France have a new patron saint?
Angry Christians "pounce" at the Olympics
Crossroads -- Olympics are in Paris, so what could go wrong?
10 reasons teens should ditch smartphones?
Mother Jones (#DUH) frets about trad wives
When "parental rights" becomes a media curse
Crossroads: God, Providence and the Trump bullet
Connect dots: Building community in this crazy age
How the Internet changed journalism ...
Yes, lots of colleges are closing these days
Crossroads -- Whoa, conservatives love "red" states? Who knew?
Social-media acid? It's all about the dress
Substack is becoming a side door into mainstream news
Lonely? Some say AI friends would help
Crossroads -- Pride month news may get more complex
That voice from the past, on the Paul Finebaum Show.
Wait, Riley lives a (mostly) phone-free life?
Flashback 2.0 -- GetReligion encore at Dispatch Faith
Crossroads -- About that whole 'debate' thing
Many journalists don't have no songs....
Ponder this: The return of "dumb phones"
Crossroads -- Why can't churches face the smartphone crisis?
Flashback: Where was God, after the Thanos "snap"?
Concerning that digital 'trad wives' tsunami
The Free Press: 'Haidt was right'
Crossroads -- Are Southern Baptists normal evangelicals in 2024?
Did you go see big-screen Lord of the Rings?
Pondering changes in Nightcrawler theology
That kind of scary stage beyond selfies
Crossroads: What happens next for United Methodists?
Yes, Brett Cooper talks way too fast
Alert! 'Lord of the Rings' epics return to big screens
Opening tmatt's screen-culture guilt file
Does God want movie theaters to survive?
Bonus podcast: Non-political chat with my friend Eric Metaxas
Another poetic step in Nightwish evolution
Click here, then here -- connecting some digital dots
Crossroads -- '60 Minutes' skips tough questions with Pope Francis
What was Catholic-kicker-gate all about?
Why Didn't Indy Convert? Grand finale at 'Popcorn Cathedral'
We can't read everything, but we can find essential voices
Crossroads -- La Leche League goes woke and embraces 'chestfeeding'
One final dab of symbolism in 'O Brother Where Art Thou?'
How simple media technologies can affect what we believe
Crossroads -- AP says conservative Catholics are growing too fast
Smartphone standoff? Jonathan Haidt on first steps in real life
Bonus podcast: Journalists really love the Episcopal Church
Yes, Americans are very, very divided ...
Crossroads -- Ivy League students fleeing to the Bible Belt?
What changed when parents gave their 10-year-old her first iPad?
Yes, Denzel is 'charismatic,' with multiple meanings of that word
Pop culture IV -- Faith, doubt and newgrass lightning from Nickel Creek
Crossroads -- Terry Anderson's faith was tested, to say the least
Rational Sheep notes on Dune 2 and sinking sand
Flashback: Norman Lear as a pop-culture religious seeker
Learning to pay attention to popular culture, part III
Crossroads -- Trying to tell "good" free speech from "bad" free speech
Talking about AI porn and, on the positive side of things, black-and-white movies
And now, two personal notes from tmatt
Are Americans still taking Communion at shopping malls?
Crossroads -- An NPR heretic speaks out
Opening my "Dune: Part Two" research folder
From GetReligion to Rational Sheep
Boom -- Screen-culture wars trilogy lands on my desk
Crossroads -- Asking faith questions about future U.S. soldiers
Learning to pay attention to popular culture, Part II
Learning to pay attention to popular culture
An early Utah signal in our fierce social-media debates
Crossroads -- Covenant School anniversary: What's the story?
Have parents stopped trusting babysitters?
How are things going with Rational Sheep?
Why were users shocked by Google doctrines?
Crossroads -- What's up with all those closed churches?
How can church leaders respond to mass-culture 'signals'?
This mass-culture 'signal' is so old that it's about Madonna
Oliver Anthony is still trying to figure things out
Crossroads -- Mysterious bishops meet with trans activists in St. Louis
Yes, camps matter in this scary day and age
Talking to Robert Duvall about Hollywood and sin
'Thelma and Louise' meet the worried Baptist pastors
Crossroads -- Life in two 'Truman Show' Americas
Wrestling with the 'entry drugs' in our phones
A key 1993 lecture on the way to Rational Sheep
'Enter Sandman' crashes into a seminary classroom
Crossroads -- Does anyone really know what 'Christian nationalism' means?