Twelve on a match

• More evidence that giving by generous compassionate conservatives outstrips that of their liberal counterparts. At least in the Champagne Room.

• When you get that big promotion and you go out to celebrate with your friends, call a cab to take you home.

Especially if the big promotion involved being appointed the Archbishop of San Francisco.

• Is it just me, or does it seem like every time a church with the word “Grace” in its name appears in the news, the story has something to do with that church’s lack of that very thing?

• Paul Vander Klay discusses “Two shootings, two responses. Which seems more Christian?”

I’m afraid the word he was reaching for there in the title was “Christ-like,” which, sadly, is more descriptively apt than that word “Christian,” thanks to the dismal track record of us Christians.

But Vander Klay’s point is well-put and well-taken: “When the blood of Sikhs produces a better word than the mere threat to Christian lives, we ought to examine ourselves and the witness we seek to present to the broader world. ”

• Josh Barkey doesn’t have anything against awe-inspiring cathedrals, but says, “Feed the hungry, then build the cathedral.”

Yes. Also acceptable: Feed the hungry by building a cathedral. Call it the WPM — the Works Progress Ministry.

• Roger Olson dismantles John Piper’s contention that God “ordains and governs” every specific sin. It’s a Calvinist form of the just-world fallacy — a contemporary term for ancient Bildad-ism — that tries to make sense of the world by indicting God.

Or, to twist C.S. Lewis to express Piper’s view: “‘Good?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘Who said anything about good? Course he isn’t good. But he’s tame.”

• Former Baywatch star Donna D’Errico has abandoned her expedition to Mount Ararat and her quest to find the remains of Noah’s Ark.

I’m not optimistic about her chances of successfully locating the ark because: 1) She unwisely planned her quest without involving her former boss, ex-Navy SEAL-turned-lifeguard Mitch Buchannon; and 2) Looking for the remains of Noah’s Ark is like looking for the remains of the Good Samaritan’s Inn or of Dives’ house. It’s not that kind of story.

• You can make a fortune writing novels depicting the fulfillment of supposed prophecies about the End Times. And, if you live in Utah, you can use that publishing success to win yourself a seat in the U.S. Congress.

• Related: Libby Anne has some history and context on “The Mark of the Beast” and evangelical Christians’ fear of bar codes.

• Carol Howard Merritt has some advice for women pastors on “Dealing with inappropriate comments.” I think most of this advice applies much more broadly, though.

Merritt’s post is also the sort of thing male readers can learn from. Think of it as a list of some of the items in our invisible knapsacks of male privilege.

• If you need to hire an attorney, first, find out where they went to law school. If it was Liberty University School of Law, find a different attorney. They’ve been studying David Barton — and that isn’t going to help your case in a real-world court.

• Pennsylvania has 5,923 registered voters who have cast votes in 50 consecutive elections and thereby earned a place in the commonwealth’s “Voter Hall of Fame.” Of these hall-of-famers, 1,384 may be excluded from voting this year thanks to Gov. Corbett’s “voter ID” law.