501(c)(3) free speech

February 20, 2010 By Fred Clark

Throughout the 1990s I worked for religious nonprofits. Those groups were doubly blessed by the IRS. As religious organizations, they didn't pay taxes. And as 501(c)(3) charities, they were able to solicit tax-deductible donations. Those privileges didn't come without some corresponding stipulations and qualifications. The very same religious status that protected us from entanglement with the state also protected the state from being entangled with us. And the tax benefits that came from being a 501(c)(3) charity were in recognition... Read more

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door – Kyrie eleison

February 19, 2010 By Fred Clark

At least it's something you've left behind "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," Bob Dylan"Knoxville Girl," Nick Cave"Knuckle Too Far," James"Kody," Matchbox Twenty"Kohoutek," R.E.M."Koka Kola," The Clash"Kryptonite," 3 Doors Down"Kyle's Mom Is a Bitch," South Park"Kyrie," At the Foot of the Cross, Vol. 1"Kyrie Eleison," Sinead O'Connor Yeesh. The presence here of both Matchbox Twenty and 3 Doors Down is an unpleasant bit of self-discovery. In my partial defense, I acquired the latter track while putting together a mix of superhero-themed …... Read more

TF: The end of the interview

February 15, 2010 By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 151-157 We return to Capt. Rayford Steele, still reeling from being accused of religious harassment toward the one co-worker with whom he has not been guilty of religious harassment. "Who's out to get you?" Earl had asked. "I can't imagine." Francine reported that the call she took that morning had been traced to New York. "It'll take them a few hours to get an exact phone number," she said, but Rayford knew in a flash who it... Read more

All are responsible

February 14, 2010 By Fred Clark

Snowfall in America brings with it, inevitably, a blizzard of "jokes" about the alleged absurdity of global warming. All of these jokes have two things in common: 1) they mention Al Gore, and 2) they're not actually funny. Being funny isn't the point of these jokes, so it's not surprising that they fail to achieve funniness. What is surprising, though, is that so many people feel compelled to tell "jokes" that aren't actually jokes — jokes that neither attempt nor... Read more

TF: The Good King

February 8, 2010 By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 147-151 A great deal of theology has to do not with God but with us — with humans and human nature and human choices. God is still in the picture, of course, that's what separates theology from other varieties of philosophy, psychology, history or ethics. But you can't do theology without also addressing all of those disciplines. You can't talk about theology without talking about human nature as well as the nature of God. One of the... Read more

About the weather

February 6, 2010 By Fred Clark

The good thing about zero visibility is it keeps you from driving faster than you should on unplowed roads. I get home this morning and I get about two-thirds of the driveway shoveled and I'm clammy-sweaty and I start to remember all those articles we've been running in the paper about the dangers of dropping dead from shoveling snow. And then I think: I'm middle-aged. I'm only a couple years younger than Django Reinhardt was when he had his fatal... Read more

Some persons are more equal than others

February 5, 2010 By Fred Clark

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are persons and that money is speech and that, therefore, corporations have a greater right to free speech than other, mortal persons with actual mouths but not as much money. These poorer, merely human persons also don't get to enjoy the apparently divine right of limited liability. Among the more intriguing repercussions of this astonishing and absurd ruling is that foreign corporations are also now free to buy up all the airtime they... Read more

TF: The Illuminati

February 1, 2010 By Fred Clark

So I'm reading a painstakingly thorough work of investigative journalism when suddenly, in Chapter 6, our friend Tim LaHaye makes a surprising and pivotal cameo appearance. The book I'm reading is Selling Satan: The Evangelical Media and the Mike Warnke Scandal, by Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott. It expands on the reporting the duo did for Cornerstone magazine in the early 1990s, exposing as a hoax the "Satanism" stories of best-selling Christian-brand author and speaker Warnke, who was swindling millions... Read more

From Jack to James

January 29, 2010 By Fred Clark

… the life he thought would just happen to him like the changing of the seasons "Jack of All Parades," Elvis Costello"Jack's Valentine," Over the Rhine"Jackeyed," Micah P. Hinson"Jacksie," Over the Rhine"Jackson," Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash"Jackson," Lucinda Williams"Jacksons, Monk and Rowe," Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet"Jaded," Green Day"Jail Guitar Doors," The Clash"Jailer," Asa"Jailhouse Rock," Elvis Presley"James," Huffamoose"James Bond Theme," Leroy Holmes Read more

Second verse, same as the first

January 28, 2010 By Fred Clark

OK, that could have been clearer. Let me take another run at the same idea a bit less elliptically. I see the parallel between Jackie Robinson and Barack Obama as much closer than all that heady post-election talk of a "post-racial America" seemed to suggest. Robinson — who wore No. 42 with the Brooklyn Dodgers when he joined the team in 1947 — broke the color barrier in baseball the first time he stepped onto the field, making history in... Read more