quote [ The doors of the Sistine Chapel are sealed. Outside, the world waits for the white smoke. Inside, the Cardinals gather. Can you navigate the subtle currents of power to emerge as the next Pope? ]

quote [ The new age of American exorcisms ]

quote [ Changing neighborhoods, loss of faith, even heating bills make places of worship among the most common types of forgotten places. ]

quote [ We were taught to literally worship Chris Butler and Wai Lana when in their presence. We would be taken into their house and everybody except Chris Butler was made to wear surgical masks in his presence. We would lay on the floor and pray to them in worship when Wai Lana or Chris Butler entered or left the room. ]

quote [ A fracas at Chabad Lubavitch headquarters when a crew tried to fill in a tunnel dug by rogue students points to a deep rift in the movement. ]

quote [ if you've ever thought about this stuff you may be glad to hear it's not just the kind of obligatory small talk you have to make at the local Opium Den ]

quote [ Levitation was the last thing Teresa of Avila wanted. It drew the wrong kind of attention and embarrassed her in public. She tried to remain grounded, clinging to furniture when the weightlessness set in, and then suddenly, it stopped for good. Carlos Eire reads Teresa's autobiographic Vida and finds the 16th-century saint complaining to God about the aethrobatic miracles that he forced her to endure. ]

quote [ church molestation insurance is necessary for churches and other religious organizations that want to protect themselves from the financial repercussions of sexual abuse claims ]

quote [ In this limited series, Jamie Loftus investigates and interrogates American spiritualism, a century-old tradition of communing with the dead that takes place in camps full of mediums across the country. Who is drawn to these camps, how did the religion come together, and why are the tarot card readers and the seance-havers fighting? Ghost Church is a look at grief, religion, and loneliness, with on-site reporting and interviews with everyone from spiritualist psychics to Protestant pastors to a very lonely carnival employee. ]

quote [ Churches are using invasive phone-monitoring tech to discourage ?sinful? behavior. Some software is seeing more than congregants realize. ]