From The New Yorker via Hemant Mehta. It is actually quite a poignant cartoon, asking us to reflect on where we look for God, and whether things that we presume to be revelations from God might not rather be distractions from God. For instance, it could equally have depicted God saying, “Those are just words that humans wrote. I’m over here…” What kinds of things are treated as sacraments that indicate the presence of the divine, and yet, in your experience, have... Read more
I saw this on Facebook, and thought it nicely addressed a common human instinct. When any of us rises above the general situation of poverty that characterizes human existence, our instinct is to protect that status, not to make sure the path is clear for others to get where we are. We must resist that instinct. We do not have some inherent right to be wealthier – not because of birth, nationality, or even hard work, since many work harder... Read more
The Invisible Enemy is famous as the episode that introduced K-9. But what I find most interesting about it is its exploration of racism and specieism. The Doctor and Leela arrive in the year 5,000, at a point at which humanity has been expanding through the solar system. The Doctor explicitly makes a comparison between humanity and a spreading disease, and when Leela is taken aback, he says “Some of my best friends are human.” I can only assume that this is a... Read more
I’ve been rewatching the James Bond movies with my son, who hadn’t seen them yet. We just watched On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and are Whovians, and so it is time to mention the “James Bond is a Time Lord” theory. I’ll include a summary of it below. But even more fun, I think, is to try to figure out which Doctor is like which Bond. For instance, perhaps Daniel Craig corresponds to Christopher Eccleston, as they are both the... Read more
HT Allan Bevere Read more
The Bible talks a lot about “graven images.” Where does that leave an engraver? Apparently it can lead to them making something called “The Illustrated Bible in Graven Images.” David Binnig has created a blog with a number of images made from linocuts. I particularly liked the one below, entitled “Judgment of the Gods,” since it puts actual gods from a variety of traditions into the picture, as a way of bringing new light to bear on the Biblical references to... Read more
The quote is from something Sarah Palin said in response to criticism of Donald Trump not knowing the names of leaders of other countries. It seemed appropriate to point out the irony of her saying that people don’t care who the leader is, since the leader will change, when she cares very much who the leader is – and whether she is one of them – in her own region and country. Trump himself apparently said much the same thing. Read more
TheologyGrams shared the above chart. The imagery at the end of Revelation is noteworthy, and I’ve sought to draw attention to it before. Revelation ends with the nations still existing outside the city, and with its gates always open. I’m not entirely sure how this vision relates to the depiction of a lake of fire, which seems like a quite final judgment in which evil is thoroughly destroyed. Perhaps this is evidence of redaction and different authors’ perspectives. But however... Read more
There are some great comments on IO9 about the latest trailer for the next new episode of Doctor Who, which airs two weeks from today. “Maximum extermination” is indeed a funny sort of phrase. Personally, I’m more intrigued by the reference to [SPOILER ALERT] the Doctor’s “last will and testament.” I was tempted to make that the title of this post, but thought that such a spoiler displayed without warning might cost me some friends. Read more
The book If Eve Only Knew: Freeing Yourself from Biblical Womanhood and Becoming All God Means for You to Be is now available, and I wanted to draw attention to that fact. I mentioned the book when I reviewed another book, Damaged Goods. Here’s what I wrote as an endorsement: “This new book by Irons and Mock tackles the Biblical and contemporary aspects of Evangelicalism and other conservative strands of Christianity which denigrate and subordinate women. Not only do they succeed in... Read more
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