⢠A Unitarian minister in Alabama was fined $250 and sentenced to six months of probation for âdisorderly conduct.â Her crime? She was trying to conduct a wedding for a lesbian couple who had already secured a legal marriage license.
My guess is that Todd Starnes and the rest of the Christian hegemons whinging about imaginary âpersecution of Christiansâ wonât be rallying behind this minister crying âReligious liberty!â But then, for Starnes et. al., Unitarians donât count as Real, True Christians (except for the ones who also signed the Declaration of Independence and/or served as president), and âreligious libertyâ is reserved only for RTCs.
⢠As far as I know, the litigious billionaires who run Walmart have not yet claimed title to the domain name Walmart.sheep.
(I fully appreciate that others are likely to arrive at the point at which this is no longer funny before I personally arrive there. But Iâm not there yet.)
⢠Rival white motorcycle gangs got in a shootout in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of them dead. Matthew Hagee says this is a sign of the End Times. Because, for the Hagees, everything is a sign of the End Times.
âThe Bible says that in the End Times, lawlessness would abound,â Hagee said. This is what utter devotion to the Narrative of Decline does to your brain. He saw news of the shootout and concluded that the Rapture must be about to happen because lawlessness has reached an all-time high in Waco â the city that previously gave its name to the Waco Siege and the Waco Horror.
⢠Anne Graham Lotz cites far more generic signs of the End Times, but like the Hagees sheâs convinced that those signs are clear and the Rapture is overdue. And sheâs willing to offer a fairly specific time-range for that prediction: âI believe that in my lifetime, if I live out my lifetime, a natural lifetime, I believe I will live to see the return of Jesus in the Rapture when he comes back to take us to be with himself.â
Lotz is 67, but her dad is still hanging in there at 96, so letâs estimate this ânatural lifetimeâ to be, say, the next 30 years. Put a marker on 2045. If Left Behind doesnât turn into a documentary between now and then, then weâll all know that Anne Graham Lotz is full of it.
Of course, the beauty of this prediction is that, by design, she wonât be around to have to defend herself once sheâs been proved wrong. Like climate-denialists, sheâs making a death bet. And, like all death bets, itâs based on the moral principle of âScrew everyone else, Iâm getting mine and who cares about anybody else once Iâm dead?â
Itâs moral principles like that that make me think of Anne Graham Lotz as Franklinâs sister rather than as Billyâs daughter.
⢠Sikhs have a rule that says they cannot remove their turbans and uncover their heads publicly. But it is not their only rule and it is not the Most Important Thing (via):
A young Sikh man has been praised for breaking religious protocol and using his turban to cradle the head of an injured child in Auckland.
Harman Singh, 22, was one of the first at the scene after a 5-year-old was hit by a car while walking to school.
Singh said he didnât think twice about removing his Siropao (turban) to help the child, who was bleeding from the head.
âI wasnât thinking about the turban. I was thinking about the accident and I just thought, âHe needs something on his head because heâs bleeding.â Thatâs my job â to help,â Singh told nzherald.co.nz.
⢠That story recalls the story in the Gospels of Jesus healing a womanâs spine on the Sabbath. And also the story in the Gospels of Jesus healing a manâs withered hand on the Sabbath. Matthewâs story is slightly different from Markâs, and the story in Luke is different enough that it might be a completely separate story. Or not. So how are they all related? Which story came first? Is one more âaccurateâ than the others, or does that question miss the whole point?
This brings us back to the always-fascinating synoptic problem â which Paul Davidson continues to discuss here.