Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal provides a wonderfully satirical take on depressingly common assertions by preachers and pundits. If gays and lesbians were indeed the cause of hurricanes and earthquakes, imagine how that power could be harnessed for good… HT Pharyngula Read more
Jim West announced on his blog today that I was the winner of his giveaway of the brand new volume An Introduction to Ugaritic by John Huenegard. Since he said that I had the most compelling answer regarding why I deserved the book, it seemed it might be worth sharing what I wrote. I realize that my having the “most compelling answer” may be a polite way of saying that, of the very small number of entries in his giveaway,... Read more
I recently became aware of these great shoes for a Doctor Who fan: They come in men’s sizes and styles too, and so if anyone is looking for a Christmas gift for me, I’ll gladly accept a pair! Read more
As I mentioned previously, in my Sunday school class we have been in chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation for the past two weeks. One of the members of my class, who in fact teaches Sunday school herself, made the interesting suggestion that the celibacy of the 144,000 (Revelation 14:4) might have to do with their priestly status – not in the sense of being Catholic priests and thus celibate, but in the sense of being set apart for priestly service... Read more
Since this is another class without changing powerpoint slides, I’m making this one available as an mp3 podcast as well: [audio:http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/files/2012/10/Passion_narratives_default.mp3] Read more
This photo from Queens has been circulating widely, showing the devastation caused by fires which broke out in Breezy Point during Hurricane Sandy: The survival of the statue of Mary impressed some Catholics. But as you might expect, I think this illustrates the sort of thing which I blog about often, and which I was talking about with students in my “Faith, Doubt, and Reason” class yesterday: people often use theological language without thinking about the implications, assuming that any... Read more
The depiction of a figure seated on a cloud and wielding a sickle in Revelation 14 is striking for several reasons. Is the figure supposed to be Jesus? If so, some may find it unsettling to imagine him taking on a role that is reminiscent of the Grim Reaper. And since it is Halloween, I thought I would comment on this point that came up in my Sunday school class this past Sunday, since it seems so appropriately seasonal. (Then... Read more
I thought it might be a hoax, but the Walt Disney company web site confirms that it is acquiring LucasFilm and will be making new Star Wars movies, with George Lucas as creative consultant! The official Star Wars blog has more information about this, and its implications, as well as the long and winding history of Star Wars episodes VII, VIII and IX (and apparently at one point also X, XI, and XII!), which are more-or-less known to have been... Read more
After some consultation, I think that it is to be agreed that the hashtag to use for those tweeting about the upcoming AAR and SBL joint annual meeting is #sblaar Adding the year seems unnecessary. And while putting the AAR ahead of the SBL seemed preferable for alphabetical reasons, the resulting hashtag #aarsbl – which would presumably then be pronounced “arse bull” – seemed less preferable than the thankfully nearly unpronounceable #sblaar Spread the word! Read more
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