• Adding this one to the list: Esther Hamori’s God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible.
• “Before evangelical males went after Taylor Swift, they hated on Amy Grant.”
Rick Pidcock turns to Leah Payne for an explanation of why and how white evangelical men try to police the sexuality of young singers. If this all sounds a little bit creepy, let me assure you that it’s actually a lot creepy.
• The “Ex-Satanist Turned Christian” racket remains a reliable grift despite the fact that the actual total number of “Ex-Satanists Turned Christian” remains zero.
• “The Dallas Mavericks were intended to be the first Christian team in the NBA.” Paul Putz on “The Basketball Team Created to Represent God.”
This might be the only good article on the history of the Mavs that doesn’t mention Dirk Nowitzki. My favorite bit is the summary of the team’s hopes that 7-foot right-wing whackaloon Ralph Drollinger would become a spiritual leader in the Dallas locker room: “His NBA career lasted six games and featured more personal fouls than points scored. He also turned out to be a liability instead of a leader within the locker room.”
Putz has carved out an intriguing niche as a historian of American sports and religion. See, for example, his fascinating look at the Minister of Defense in “Reggie White’s Evolving Faith.” The substack “newsletter” model isn’t my favorite — I want to read blogs, not check my email — but like most, his also has an RSS feed and it’s well worth subscribing.
• Also from Christianity Today: “Christian Radio Sues Over Disparity in Streaming Costs.” I got a bit lost in the twists and turns here, but the “religious liberty” argument here seems to be that Christian streaming radio has the same right to rip off artists that commercial streaming radio does.
• Since we already mentioned “Blink” here, let me repeat the recommendation via Sarah Bessey’s “beginner’s guide to Doctor Who“:
Here’s your plan: Watch an episode called Blink in Series 3, Episode 10 (2007). It features the Tenth Doctor and his companion, Martha, but really it’s one of the best early episodes of the rebooted show and will give you a very clear idea of the show and how time travel works even if there isn’t enough of the Doctor in it. Then watch Vincent and the Doctor in Series 5, Episode 10 (2010) with the Eleventh Doctor.
Good? Now go to Series 5, Episode 1 called The Eleventh Hour (2010) which introduces the Eleventh Doctor along with companion Amy Pond.
This is an excellent plan. And it’s timely, since “The Eleventh Hour” first aired 14 years ago. 14 years!
• David Dark on Daniel Berrigan.
• Richard Beck on Daniel Berrigan.
• And here is Beck again on the story of Hobab, one of those obscure little luminous asides in the Bible that you sometimes wonder might have been snuck into the canon by some virtuous trickster.
• I follow a bunch of church-abuse watchdog blogs like Watchkeep just to keep abreast of how churches and denominations are or are not responding — whether they are or are not demanding accountability or protecting the vulnerable or respecting the dignity and needs of victims. I wasn’t expecting to encounter a post or a story like this one: “Justice for Mica.”
This involves the suspicious death of an evangelical mega-church pastor’s wife and the suspicious behavior of that pastor before and after her death. We don’t know the story here, but his story doesn’t seem credible.
Kathryn Post has more for RNS, “FBI asked to join investigation of death of pastor’s wife, Mica Miller.”
• RNS also has the latest on the Arlington Nun Mutiny.
These nuns are closer to the Mother Angelica end of the spectrum than to the Plowshares Eight end, but I still guess I’m rooting for them in their power struggle with the Bishop of Fort Worth.
• The title for this post comes from a Mary Gauthier song about the Best Kind of nuns:
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In