If you believe you’re nothing but worm-food at death, you aren’t going to jump on a grenade to save the platoon, or charge a machine-gun nest expecting to meet Jesus. You’re going to be reserved, second-guessing, and probably be a big fat chicken.

I can’t help but view this historically. I think of the great world conquering armies, like Alexander’s Macedonian army or the Roman legions. These ancient armies were not composed of atheists, but the soldiers all had no expectation of seeing some sort of afterlife if they caught a spear to the chest. That idea simply hadn’t developed yet.

So what on earth could compel them to travel across the ancient world and fighting horrendous battles? Clearly, to Rev. Griem, they should have stayed home and huddled about the fire, too afraid to lose their brief lives to strap on armor.

They fought for glory. They fought for honor. They fought for the hope of personal advancement. They fought for duty. They fought to defend their homelands and their family. They fought to advance their cities and their countries. They fought because their ancestors had fought, and because their children would fight, and because the generations could be linked by this common endeavor with a bond of such power that death could not break it.

None of this apparently makes sense to Rev. Griem.

Sometimes I think the idea of the afterlife is the most damaging idea that humans have created. It cheapens life. It makes the purpose of living to keep on living. But if life is meaningless without the afterlife, it is also meaningless with it. Zero multiplied by infinity is still zero. Maybe it’s only by appreciating the briefness of life that we can appreciate the importance of life’s contents.

Finally we’ll get to know whether He prefers underhand or overhand.

Actually, I’d kinda like to know the contents of this sermon. There’s basically nothing in the Bible about this topic, unless you try to rope in poor Onan. My guess is that it will be a few Biblical passages stripped of context and extended way too far.

Via Christian Nightmares

Rick Santorum is a nice smiley fanatic. He does not believe in evolution or global warming or women in the workplace. He equates gay sex with bestiality (Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum). He equates contraception with the guillotine. Only a brain-dead party could think him a worthy presidential candidate. Yet he is praised by television pundits, night and day, for being “sincere” and “standing by what he believes.” He is the principled alternative to the evil Moderation of Mitt Romney and the evil Evil of Newt Gingrich. He is presented as a model Catholic. Torquemada was, in that sense, a model Catholic.

I do love me some Wills, ever since I read A Necessary Evil in college. A few years after that he wrote a short biography of St. Augustine. Apparently he was struck by Augustine’s argument that honesty was always necessary, and he became frustrated with what he saw as dishonesty from the Catholic hierarchy.

From that frustration came his most controversial work, Papal Sin: Structure of Deceit. There he lays out most of the arguments he uses in the above article. It’s refreshing to see the Church get called to task for straying from its own principles.

[source]

Contains profanity. Duh.

The granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch has accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.

The charges are leveled in a federal lawsuit filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper last week against her former lawyers, who also do legal work for TBN.

Paul and Jan Crouch have always struck me as a more successful version of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the PTL Club. But Jim and Tammy’s son Jay went on to reject his parents’ lifestyle and politics, and maybe that is the same thing we’re seeing here. Certainly the Crouch family have matched the Bakker family in terms of conspicuous consumption:

“Observers have often wondered how the Crouches can afford multiple mansions on both coasts, a $50 million jet and chauffeurs,” said Tymothy MacLeod, Koper’s attorney. “And finally, with the CFO coming forward, we have answers to those questions.”[...]

Trinity Christian Center, a nonprofit in the eyes of Uncle Sam, does not have to pay taxes on its income. It reported revenues of $175.6 million, expenses of $193.7 million, and net assets of $827.6 million at the end of 2010, according to its tax returns.

Its highest-paid officer was Paul Crouch, with compensation of $400,000.

Its officers, directors and key employees included Paul and Jan Crouch, Paul Crouch Jr., Matthew Crouch, Koper and her husband, among others, according to Trinity’s most recent tax returns. It has offices in Tustin and a studio in Costa Mesa.