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On the Ahlquist Story and Analysis

Providence Journal education reporter Jennifer Jordan had a fine cover story in Sunday's paper about the controversy over the prayer banner, recently deemed unconstitutional, at...
By David Scharfenberg | January 23, 2012

SpeakEasy's heart-wrenching Next Fall

It's a story you've heard before: a young gay man, raised by Bible-thumping Southern parents who would disown him if he were to come out, moves to New York City.
Revelations
By MADDY MYERS | October 07, 2011

Review: Machine Gun Preacher

Jesus does funny things to people: one day you're sitting on a toilet shooting heroin; the next you're building an orphanage in war-torn southern Sudan.
White-savior storyline
By ANN LEWINSON | September 30, 2011

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

A (sort of) heartwarming story of a Jew and a Muslim.
Toontime
By DAVID KISH | September 30, 2011

Review: Higher Ground

True to the film's title, Vera Farmiga tries to elevate the bitter dialogue between secularism and fundamentalism to higher ground, regarding both sides with compassion and clarity.
Farmiga's directorial debut
By PETER KEOUGH | September 09, 2011

Immortalizing Irene: dressed up to clean up, tales of survival, and blowhards

Phillipe had to endure Irene at Casa Diablo South in Newport. No problems at all, save for a titanic poplar limb, whose size had already led P&J to dub it "Johnny Wadd," falling all the way across the circular driveway and nearly taking down the pow
Paging Babe the Blue Ox
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 02, 2011

In his new graphic novel, Craig Thompson wins an argument with God

This book is a gorgeous object; to make it, Thompson apparently covered himself in honey and rolled around in a thousand years of Arabic calligraphy and Islamic art, and the result is breathtaking — the amount of ink expended on one resplendent panel aft
Illuminated manuscript
By S.I. ROSENBAUM | September 02, 2011

My misbegotten creative career

Vo Dilanduhs know R.J. Heim, the veteran Channel 10 meteorologist and news reporter, as a charismatic and engaging fellow but, primarily, as a local weatherman.
Still waiting for Slugot; fan feedback; Gatorgate
By RUDY CHEEKS | August 05, 2011

God's country

We live in Massachusetts, with troubles of our own. So why should we care about What's the Matter with Kansas? , the title of Thomas Frank's new book?
Thomas Frank goes to the heartland
By CATHERINE TUMBER | July 29, 2011

Big conservative funders are making a new push at universities

Funders are working through official university channels to underwrite lecture series, conferences and colloquia, and centers geared for the general-interest student, all carrying university imprimatur.
Right turn on campus
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 15, 2011

Rapture, ruptured

May 21 came and went, and nobody got lifted naked skyward into Heaven.
Diverse-city
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | May 27, 2011

Local musical sends up gay-hating, gay culture

Reverend Jonathan Fisher (Michael Tobin), founder of Straight and Narrow, an evangelical congregation meant to "cure" homosexuals, has a problem.
Theatrical exposures
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 13, 2011

Ferraro, a photo, and a legacy

Geraldine Ferraro's photograph stands proudly in a silver frame, inscribed to my daughter with the words, "You are my hero."
Tribute
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | April 01, 2011

Grace Zabriskie on Big Love and marriage

Through the course of 80 films and countless television guest spots, actress Grace Zabriskie has worked with directors as varied as David Lynch, Werner Herzog, and Michael Bay.
Lynch's lady
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | March 18, 2011

Review: R. Crumb illuminates the Bible at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

The Book of Genesis seems like inherently good fodder for R. Crumb's satirical debasement.
Biblically speaking
By ANNIE LARMON | March 18, 2011

Review: Of Gods and Men

Xavier Beauvois co-wrote and directed this thoughtful true story of a small Trappist monastery situated in a poor Algerian Muslim village overrun with fundamentalist mercenaries.
Thoughtful true story about the search for peace and purpose in a chaotic world
By PEG ALOI | March 18, 2011

Start your own Westboro Baptists franchise today!

Free speech free-for-all!
Big Fat Whale
By BRIAN MCFADDEN | March 11, 2011

Will the Catholic Church kill gay marriage?

Rhode Island’s gay marriage moment has finally arrived. And the Catholic Church just might kill it.
Inside the high-stakes battle over same-sex nuptials in Rhode Island
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 25, 2011

The Phoenix's Awards Haul

The Providence Phoenix gathered a nice little clutch of awards at this weekend's New England Newspaper & Press Association's annual fete - this one covering work from...
By David Scharfenberg | February 14, 2011

I was a teenage Sandinista

As a freshman philosophy major at the University of Colorado, Deb Olin Unferth fell in love with a junior named George. A pious Evangelical, George felt it was his duty to help his Communist brethren in Central America fight against their capitalist opp
Deb Olin Unferth left college in the '80s to become a Communist Freedom Fighter. It didn't quite work out that way.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | January 28, 2011

Diva down!

Phillipe and Jorge rushed to the home of our close pal and confidante Bishop Tommy Tobin last weekend with cold compresses and fistfuls of Valium in an effort to tend to our well-accessorized dogmatist in a time of trouble.
Babysitting the Bish; nautical talk; dissing discourse
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 14, 2011

Review: Cappella Clausura in Ordo Virtutum

Sex and the single (it’s the only one we have) 12th-century opera? That’s what an early-music outfit was promising at the First Lutheran Church of Boston this past Sunday.
Cappella Clausura tames the Devil at the First Lutheran Church on November 12, 2010
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 19, 2010

Cinematic excess

Eight years after its completion, The Cremaster Cycle , Matthew Barney's interminable multi-media opus, continues to befuddle and intrigue audiences.
Matthew Barney's seven-hour Cremaster Cycle descends in the Portland Museum of Art
By ANNIE LARMON | November 12, 2010

Parental disapproval

I am a 21-year-old woman who is still living at home with my mother and stepfather. I am a lesbian and am currently in a relationship. The only problem I have is that neither my mom nor her side of the family approves of my orientation . . .
Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
By DR. LOVEMONKEY | October 22, 2010

Children of Eden's entertaining Bible stories

The team behind Children of Eden have plenty of creative cred; that's one thing in its favor. And then there's the backhanded compliment that the show isn't likely to turn you into a whooping, fundamentalist Bible-thumper.
Family feuds
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 22, 2010

Review: A. Cemal Ekin's 'Touching the History' at PC

In June 2009, A. Cemal Ekin, a marketing professor at Providence College, found himself in Istanbul, Turkey, atop scaffolding rising some 16 stories high inside the historic dome of Hagia Sophia.
See the light
By GREG COOK | October 15, 2010

'Sorry' was the wrong word

I’ve waited a long damn time for this state to become less white. Now, I can see at least a few people of color every day without breaking a sweat, when nearly nine years ago I could go days upon days without seeing a single non-white face.
Diverse-city
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | September 17, 2010

Review: Thy Will Be Done

There is a marvelous, understated juxtaposition here between Sara Herwig's journey to becoming a woman and her journey to becoming a minister.
Sara Herwig becomes woman, minister
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 10, 2010

The Protestant Picnic Pack

Guaranteed: No Fun.
Toontime
By DAVID KISH | September 10, 2010

Acting lessons needed

I am 38 years old, relatively good-looking, and in basically good shape. My wife and I met when we were both 22 and gradually got to know each other. We dated for seven years, and finally married. My problem is that I no longer find her physically attr
Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
By DR. LOVEMONKEY | September 10, 2010

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