Mark Driscoll cannot escape the shame of his willingness to associate with Janet Mefford
Let’s stop treating Janet Mefford like she’s some kind of good, honest journalist for calling out Mark Driscoll’s plagiarism. She makes a living telling vicious, venomous lies about LGBT people and about Muslims. She hates those people and thinks that hate justifies her lies about them. That doesn’t make her a journalist, or honest, or good. [Read more...]
Loaves and cakes: Jesus tramples on the religious liberty of his disciples
“Hold on a minute, there, Jesus,” the twelve said. “Some of these people might be sinners and people we disapprove of. Feeding them all would be like opening a store and having to sell your wares to everyone who came in, without discriminating between the worthy and unworthy customers. That violates our religious liberty.” [Read more...]
7@9: The ‘really, really rad version’
Celebrating the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. Chad Michael Murray on the daunting responsibility of carrying on Kirk Cameron’s legacy. John Calvin trashes Dave Ramsey. Bill Donohue celebrates Festivus (he’s good at airing his grievances, not so good at the feats of strength). The news from Texas is still mostly dismaying. Kevin Drum on the “depraved” opposition to allowing the poor access to health care that’s already paid for. [Read more...]
2 years ago: Rick Perry determined to make evangelicals as ridiculous and unpopular as he is
Ads like this one, and our failure to reject them, further cement the impression that evangelicals are incapable of loving our neighbors– incapable of living as neighbors with anyone who doesn’t share our particular sectarian faith and sectarian political ideology. [Read more...]
Dave Ramsey and Dear Prudence: When good advice goes bad
The condescension that accompanies the common-sense aspects of their advice could be shrugged off if Yoffe and Ramsey didn’t take the next ugly step — the sweeping implication that it is the “prey” who are primarily responsible for being preyed upon in their “prey-rich environment.” Here’s how Ramsey put it, explicitly: “The only variable in the discussion you can personally control is YOU. … You can make better choices and have better results.” [Read more...]
Scenes from the class war
They’re still fighting the class war. We’re still losing: Employers want full-time availability for part-time work and small-time pay. Forty percent of American workers make less than $20,000 a year. Coal companies paid Johns Hopkins not to find cases of black lung. In Haiti’s small-government libertarian paradise, wage-theft by bosses steals a third of workers’ pay. And more. [Read more...]
7 @ 9: To bigorty, no sanction
Rick Warren’s stale ham sandwich. South Carolina state senator demands child labor and the abolition of retirement for able-bodied seniors. Oklahoma spends $70 on anti-divorce program; divorce rate in Oklahoma goes up. Charity as perpetual motion machine. Spiritual tricksters expose hegemonic hypocrisy of Christianists. And a maudlin, melodramatic Christmas song from Randy Stonehill. [Read more...]
David Barton is a terrible liar, but he’s still a very popular DM
But here’s the very very important thing to understand: David Barton doesn’t think he is fooling anybody. He tells lies, but those lies are not intended to deceive his audience or to trick his fans into believing that something false is actually true. They all know it’s a lie. [Read more...]
10 years ago: Evangelism as hospitality
Evangelism, properly understood, is a form of hospitality. Like all hospitality, it is an obligation, a moral imperative. But it cannot be imposed. Hospitality is an invitation — “welcome,” “make yourself at home,” “take a load off,” “taste and see” — not an imposition. [Read more...]
7 things @ 9 o’clock (12.9)
A Cleveland coffee shop gets all Sermon-on-the-Mount-ish. Molly Worthen pegs the dissonance between evangelical gatekeepers and evangelical diversity. Our unintentionally R-rated Christmas stockings. Jason Pitzl-Waters on the “Ongoing Ugly Legacy of the Satanic Panics.” Friday night’s alright for fighting, Friday night’s alright. Desmond Tutu on Nelson Mandela. [Read more...]
5 years ago: Doggie justice
In the case of these hypothetical assistants, of course, no one would mischaracterize the unpaid underdog’s response as “envious.” She might be angry, but she’d be refusing to cooperate not because she’s jealous of the other assistant, but because she is the victim of an injustice — because the situation is clearly unfair. Her response is not motivated by envy but by a sense of justice. [Read more...]
2 years ago: Ludwig von Mises smacks down latest religious-right talking point
This is not a minor point. This is, at a fundamental level, the confusion of virtue and vice. People who condemn justice are not to be trusted. [Read more...]
Good manners is often bad morals
Some forms of “proper” manners are an expression of respect for other people as people. But much of what is presented as good and proper manners, or as “civility,” has nothing to do with respect for other people. It is, rather, about respect for the status quo — no matter how unjust, oppressive, exclusive, or otherwise evil that status quo may be. [Read more...]
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