This cartoon came to my attention via Centered Librarian. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with updating names. A ‘computer’ used to mean a person who did calculations for a living. On the other hand, a search engine (in the current sense of the term) is something radically different from a librarian. A search engine provides automated results. A librarian is a person that can help you identify the most relevant results from such a search for precisely what... Read more
Hemant Mehta drew attention to a statement by Larry King, to the effect that religion is entirely a response to fear of death. Here is the most relevant quote: I think the only reason for religion is death. If you didn’t die, there’d be no religion. I have to disagree, since in the case of ancient Israelite religion, we find the two separated – religion without expectation of an afterlife. And so I think the interesting question is not “Would... Read more
There have been times when I thought the opposite – when the world filled with angels and demons and a cosmic spiritual battle waging across it has seemed so much more exciting than the world most of us inhabit. But then Fred Clark comes along and writes something like this: I often criticize fundamentalism and inerrantism because it’s wrong. And it is wrong. But it’s flattened, fragile approach to the Bible isn’t just wrong, it’s also far less interesting than the real Bible... Read more
This cartoon by Tom Toles is poignant for multiple reasons. It doesn’t just highlight the tendency of some Christians to blame Jesus for their hatred and attacks on others. It also points out the irony of doing so in the name of Jesus, about whom a famous (if not exactly canonical) story is told about him refusing to cast stones, and challenging others to do so only if they are without sin. Read more
I saw an image today on Facebook (included here on the right), indicating that there are people who are still saying that President Obama “owes Christians an apology” for having said at a recent National Prayer Breakfast, “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too... Read more
A few days ago I shared a proposed definition of Christianity from Richard Beck. Now I’m sharing his proposed definition of faith: Faith is the activity of hallowing, the practice of picking out patterns from the indifferent egalitarianism of particle physics to say that these things are sacred, these things are holy, these things are worthy of honor, these things are worthy of care, these things are worthy of emulation, and these things make us human. Click through to read... Read more
This comic from Robot Hugs explores some of the many reasons why students should not start an essay with “Webster’s Dictionary defines X as…” I had been thinking about blogging on this topic even before the cartoon was drawn to my attention, and so I decided to share it and offer some thoughts on the subject. The punch line at the end of the comic makes it even more relevant to this blog. More thoughts from me below the comic. Quoting the... Read more
Via Glennon Doyle Melton’s Facebook page “Momastery.” I like to think of this as a first draft of the verse, because I find it helpful to imagine either Jesus, or the author of John, as real human beings, considering (as we all must) the various things that we might focus on and identify ourselves by. For some, that makes Jesus, or the author of the Gospel, too human. But for me, it makes it even more powerful, as I am forced to... Read more
The above photo of the “Current Issues” shelf in a Christian bookstore was shared online. The titles deserve a close look. The apocalypse? The occult? Islam? World religions? None of these things is new. I suppose all of them can be said to be “current.” But it seems as though they are all issues that Christians ought to have learned how to deal with at least a millennium ago. The same can be said, of course, about hunger, poverty, and... Read more
I’m grateful to Daniel Gullotta for drawing my attention to the above video of Joel Baden, speaking about what the Bible becomes when it remains a powerful symbol but its contents largely unknown. I’ve shared things from Daniel here before, and if you’ve appreciated them, you might be interested to know that he has set up a “Go Fund Me” site to support his aim to go to Yale Divinity School to study the New Testament. Read more
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