Today long-time reader, white-noise enthusiast, and all-around trouble-making media mogul Brian Shields today brought to our attention the website DressJesusUp.com. I went. I played. I’m asking. [polldaddy poll=3302418] (The follow-up to this post is What Would Jesus Do (If He Saw Himself Wearing a Propeller Beanie)?) Read more
(To understand the “Okay, Fine:” part of this post’s title, read yesterday’s “What Am I Going To Do With You People?“) By the early fourth century A.D. there was circulating throughout the young Christian church in Europe and North Africa countless versions of the Bible translated into Latin, by then widely spoken throughout the Roman Empire. Jerome (known to us today as Saint Jerome), the man assigned by Pope Damasus to come up with one definitive Latin Bible, wrote, There... Read more
Oh, like you care. (Update: If you’re suffering from insomnia, or whatever, and actually do care to read about the LV, see my “Okay, Fine: The LATIN VULGATE.”) Read more
I’m so confused. Today I was doing a fairly massive amount of writing about tithing. In the course of that work I wrote, If, as we have seen above, Paul makes a strong case for believers giving to the church, Jesus Christ makes an even stronger case for believers giving to the poor. (more…) Read more
The Lighthouse of Alexandria The Bible as we have it today wasn’t simply handed to man by God; people had to decide what books did and didn’t make it into what’s called the “canon” (e.g., Official Collection of Writings) of the Bible. Among the most important in the long history of such people are the seventy-two Judean scholars (six from each of the twelve tribes of Israel) who, according to legend, came together around 250 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt (then... Read more
(This is a follow-up to yesterday’s “Christians: Are We Cool with Transvestites?”) Before I became a Christian, it never even occurred to me that there might be anything morally suspect about being a Transylvanian. Oh sure, I knew TV’s were different. The jet-black hair, slicked back on the men like style desperados hording the last of the world’s supply of Vitalis. The long black capes, so woefully retro. The weird hours they keep. Their glowing eyes. Their inability to see themselves... Read more
By way of introducing himself to his fellow commenters, yesterday a fellow named Mark included this as part of his comment on my (weirdly inflammatory) post, “What’s Wrong With Dressing Sexy?” I am also a transvestite, a wearer of feminine clothing, which practice I have had for nearly half a century. Unfortunately, or otherwise depending on your perspective, due to my draw in the genetic lottery, except for very early on in the behavior when I had NO desire to... Read more
Like (I presume) every American, I today feel the weight, glory, and sheer spiritual magnitude of Memorial Day. I’m the son of a WWII veteran; when I was eight (and while standing at a urinal in a boy’s bathroom at my elementary school, where apparently I used to do all my big thinking), I realized that I was too young to ever have to serve in Vietnam, and would more than likely be too old to serve by the time... Read more
It’s four a.m., and I just awoke from a dream that ended with me in tears. Thought I’d share. There are times when I like — or, more truly, need — to write. Not as in “think something profound and express it with words”; but physically, with a pen or pencil on paper, to write. In another life I might have been a calligrapher; writing on paper is to me an elemental aesthetic experience. I thrill at the erratic flow... Read more
I’m sorry, but I’ve had to temporarily unpublish this piece–the one about evangelizing. In the forthcoming week I’ll totally explain why. Much love! And, again, sorry for any inconvenience. I’ve really been enjoying the entirely excellent comments to this post. Really good stuff. Read more
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