By By Gavin Aung Than / zenpencils.com Reprinted HERE from Films For Action Banksy is an anoynomous English street artist and activist who has become a cult hero for his anti-establishment and rebellious artwork. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend the documentary Banksy directed, Exit Through the Gift Shop. Two thumbs up! Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace Available now on Amazon ... Read more
What’s needed to save the dwindling Church is a new paradigm: the embrace of atheism as the true religion and religion as the true atheism. Like box stores, the trend in churches is a few get huge while the rest slowly fade away. Progressive Christians and fundamentalists seem to agree when they look for causes of church attendance decline. They parse the details of how church is “done” related to both theology and method. To rock out or not? To... Read more
WHEN the long, grim history of Christianity’s disappearance from theMiddle East is written, Ted Cruz’s performance last week at a conferenceorganized to highlight the persecution of his co-religionists will merit atmost a footnote. ROSS DOUTHAT The Middle East’s Friendless Christians Senator Ted Cruz’s stunt at a conference on religious persecution has only increased his co-religionists’ isolation. SUNDAYREVIEW | OP-ED COLUMNIST New York Times The Middle East’s Friendless Christians SEPT. 13, 2014 Ross Douthat WHEN the long, grim history of Christianity’s... Read more
U2 Surprise Release New Album Songs of Innocence for Free on iTunes By Jeremy Gordon (First published in Pitchfork) At an Apple event held today in Cupertino, California, U2 both announced and released their new album, Songs of Innocence. (That’s the cover, above.) The follow up to 2009’s No Line on the Horizon is available for free, right now, for anyone who uses iTunes, iTunes Radio, or Beats Music. It will be an Apple exclusive until October 13, when it will receive a physical release. You can watch an... Read more
“We’re living in an acquisitive capitalist society that is fundamentally anti-family and fundamentally uncomfortable with just enjoying being human. We’d rather shop than live, acquire than love and stare into a screen than hold each other.” Here’s my wife Genie when she was 18 with our first child Jessica Over lunch today, my wife Genie told me that looking back at the time when we were living with my family at L’Abri in Switzerland in the 1970s, she feels especially... Read more
Liberals can’t get their minds around the fact that radical Islam is evil Conservatives can’t get their minds around the fact that uncritical support of Israel has turned 1 billion Muslims needlessly into our enemies Liberals can’t get their minds around the fact that Western culture produced democracy in a way Islamic culture won’t in other words there never will be an Arab “Spring” until there is an Arab enlightenment Conservatives can’t get their minds around the fact that George W Bush... Read more
Here’s the deal: I’m talking “virtual book tour” to you! Just buy 8 copies or more of my new book in paperback and I’ll give you ONE HOUR face-to-face on Skype with me and we can use that time any way you want (within reason! ). And/or I will talk to your group, class, church, whatever– to discuss my book and what I’d like to do about changing the entire conversation about faith and spirituality. Let’s embrace uncertainty and paradox... Read more
Losing Our Touch By RICHARD KEARNEY August 30, 2014 11:30 August 30, 2014 11:30 am The New York Times Are we losing our senses? In our increasingly virtual world, are we losing touch with the sense of touch itself? And if so, so what? I recently had occasion to pose these questions to students in a college class I teach on eros — “from Plato to today.” Not surprisingly, the topic of physical contact and sex came up, and the... Read more
Who is actually following Jesus: fundamentalist Christians rejecting gay men and lesbians’ right to marry, or atheist humanists treating men and women with love and dignity? Fact-based, enlightened atheists sometimes treat people like shit, and delusional fundamentalists sometimes treat people with compassion in spite of their harsh theology. Labels don’t mean anything. Who cares about labels when someone is slapping you in the face? Who cares about labels when someone is saving you from drowning? Who someone is and what... Read more
I Will Do a FREE Book Group SKYPE Session Talk and Q&A For You. Here’s HOW: Before October 1 2014, you, your group, book club, church, friends, family or school buy a minimum of 8 paperback copies of my new book “Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God” You provide proof of purchase with the emailed Amazon order confirmation or a scanned copy of a bookstore receipt and email it to me You email me at frankaschaeffer@aol.com send... Read more
Why I Still Talk to Jesus -- In Spite of Everything
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