Some called it "Touchdown Jesus," or "Big Butter Jesus," or "Quicksand Jesus," but the actual name for the giant statue outside of Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, was "King of Kings." Whatever one calls it, that glorious piece of Roadside Americana is now gone. The statue was struck by lightning Monday night and burned to the ground. That's right, Jesus burned to the ground. Yet the Cowtown Cowboy still stands — along with hundreds of his kin. What does... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 231 – 235 We're nearing the end of the largest section of this book — the part involving Buck and Rayford agonizing over their respective more-prestigious job offers. Their new jobs place them closer to the center of the action Antichrist-wise, allowing both to witness the global events that Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye want to portray in these books. That narrative convenience accounts for the fact of their respective job offers, but it can't account for... Read more
I worked myself into a bind on the question of usury and interest because I was reading the Bible wrong. I was approaching it wrong, asking the wrong questions and therefore coming away with the wrong answers. "What does the rulebook say about this?" I asked. And then, having asked that question in that way, I found that the rulebook offered a set of rules. Those rules seemed clear and strict, and they seemed to forbid the very good work... Read more
Via Grist: http://www.ucbcomedy.com/videos/embed/23691f9f95fce8fca3b49a14619493ae Read more
This should blow Robert J. Samuelson's mind: Nokia has introduced a cellphone with a bicycle-powered generator. This is pretty cool. I can imagine some upscale Americans buying such a thing in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, but that's not who this is designed for. The new Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit is being released, first, in Kenya. This is a cellphone for the poor. It's designed to meet the needs, and budgets, of people who live where electricity is... Read more
By the time he was my age, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been dead for three years. Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 229-231 Before Left Behind there was Hal Lindsey. His 1970s best-sellers — The Late Great Planet Earth and There's a New World Coming — were just as big a publishing phenomenon, selling millions of copies even without the aid of distribution through the mainstream outlets like Walmart and Barnes & Noble that helped boost sales of the Left Behind series. Lindsey, a former tugboat captain turned prophecy expert at Dallas Theological Seminary, popularized premillennial dispensationalism and its... Read more
And all I have to do today is make you happy … "Beautiful," Aimee Mann"Beautiful Child," Eurythmics"Beautiful Day," U2"Beautiful Dream Visions," Sarah Masen"Beautiful Girl," Aztec Camera"Beautiful One," Daniel Amos"The Beautiful Ones," Prince and the Revolution"Beautiful Rain," The BoDeans"Beautiful World," Coldplay"Beauty and Sadness," The Smithereens Hearing Sammy BoDean (Sam Llanas) sing all 10 of these songs would make me very happy. Read more
When you greet a stranger look at his shoesKeep your money in your shoes … A few times a week I get an e-mail or a drive-by comment from someone very upset that I'm defending or advocating for a position they regard as contrary to the Bible. This happens often. Regularly. Constantly. Yet as often as it happens, none of my accusers has ever been angry that I seem to be "glibly dismissive" of the clear biblical teaching of Luke... Read more
Atrios points to this response from the Center for Economic and Policy Research to Robert J. Samuelson's Washington Post column in which he argues that America's poor are lucky duckies because, among other things, they have microwaves and cellphones. Samuelson regards cellphones as a luxury item. Which is to say, in 2010, that Robert J. Samuelson regards having a telephone as a luxury item. Here, for Mr. Samuelson's benefit, is a screencap from McDonald's online application for a crew member... Read more
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