Who Was Timothy Leary?

Last updated on: February 18, 2009 at 8:16 am By John Shore

Dear John, Who was Timothy Leary?—Curious and Totally Not Trying to Get You to Do the Homework Assignment From My “History of the 20th Century” Class Dear CTNTGYDHAFMH2CC, As it happens, one of my online friends is ruby-throated, liberal hippie media mogul Brian Shields (see Do People Get Stoned at Work?). Mr. Shields (who also runs the mega-excellent site Today’s Cool News) does his media moguling for San Francisco’s venerable market lion KRON-TV. As coincidence would have it, Mr. Shields... Read more

Women in Bad Relationships: Eve’s Curse Isn’t Yours

Last updated on: February 17, 2009 at 11:23 am By John Shore

(Update: All the posts of this series have been collected into one piece, Seven Reasons Women Stay in Abusive Relationships, and How to Defeat Each One of Them.) It’s now time to write about the third reason I listed for why women stay in bad relationships, which is that it can be so embarrassing to have a relationship to which you’ve been long committed go publicly down in flames. Before getting to that, though, I want to address something that’s... Read more

Presidents Day: Don’t Work; Don’t Imagine George Washington in Drag

Last updated on: February 16, 2009 at 6:31 am By John Shore

Is it just me, or is Presidents Day easily the least emotionally inspiring of our holidays? Oh, sure, I always choke up a little whenever I or my wife get paid for not going to work. That’s a beautiful, even inspiring thing. But beyond that, I’m not even sure what Presidents Day is. I know that when I was a kid, the point of Presidents Day was to sit in class, stare at a colorful cut-out head of George Washington’s profile, and try not to... Read more

John 1:18: Bring on the Stupid

Last updated on: February 15, 2009 at 7:27 am By John Shore

John 1:18 says: No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. I think the meaning of this sentence is clear: God is a Siamese twin. And half of him is shy. Well, there go plans for never dying. I’m officially lucky if God doesn’t kill me right now. Stupid sense of humor. I knew it’d be the end of me. So, to hurry up: I think... Read more

No Fair Heeding Paul on Gays, But Not Jesus on Wealth

Last updated on: March 15, 2018 at 10:14 am By John Shore

The reason conservative Christians invariably give for asserting that homosexuality is an egregious sin against God is that the Bible says it is. “God said it; I believe it” is the conservative Christian’s credo. And it’s an understandable one. It’s easy enough to deride Christian conservatives for taking the Bible too literally — but believing words is, after all, what we all most readily do with them. Especially if we think those words come from God. Talk about your well... Read more

Women in Bad Relationships Need Not Fear Fear

Last updated on: February 12, 2009 at 6:55 am By John Shore

(Update: All the posts of this series have been collected into one piece, Seven Reasons Women Stay in Abusive Relationships, and How to Defeat Each One of Them.) Last time we identified four fears that often keep women in bad relationships: “Things could always get worse”; “I’ve never been alone”; “Will I ever find another man?”; and finally, “I’ll have no money.” So let’s take those one by one, and see if we can’t strip them of their power. “Things... Read more

Ten Ways Christians Tend to Fail at Being Christian

Last updated on: February 10, 2009 at 1:05 pm By John Shore

The essay is found in: Kindle Nook Read more

The Fear Factor: Reason #2 Women Stay in Bad Relationships

Last updated on: February 9, 2009 at 6:18 am By John Shore

(Update: All the posts of this series have been collected into one piece, Seven Reasons Women Stay in Abusive Relationships, and How to Defeat Each One of Them.) In From Selfless to Selfish: 1 Reason Women Remain in Bad Relationships and From Selflessness to Selfishness: Go, Xena, Go!, we looked at one reason women too often stay in bad relationships. Today we’ll look at another factor that tends to keep women rooted in relationships from which they really should extract... Read more

John 1:17: Where “Truth” Depends on Your Translation (!)

Last updated on: February 8, 2009 at 12:52 pm By John Shore

Today we’re considering John 1: 17, which reads (in the NIV translation): “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Seems simple enough, right? Law comes from men; grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. Except, wait. Stop. Back up. I understand the part about grace having come through Jesus Christ. No problem; beautiful. But then John goes a lot further than that, doesn’t he? He actually says that before God incarnated himself as Jesus... Read more

Proof People Get Stoned at Work

Last updated on: February 7, 2009 at 1:00 pm By John Shore

Here’s an email I recently received: Dear John: The other day a co-worker of mine suggested that he and I “smoke a doobie” together before going into work. I was appalled at the suggestion, and opined that no one in the world ever worked at their job while high on marijuana or anything else. To this my friend laughed so hard it took about two minutes before he was finally able to ask me what planet I was from. So... Read more