LBCF, No. 226: ‘Tim LaHaye’s Cherokee grandmother’

Last updated on: March 8, 2019 at 5:33 pm By Fred Clark

Tsion Ben-Judah is what the authors imagine to be an Honest Jew. Any Honest Jew, in their view, is one who rejects Judaism. The implication, of course, is that any Jewish person who fails to do this is a Dishonest Jew. Read more

Musical chairs is the opposite of higher education

Last updated on: March 11, 2019 at 4:49 pm By Fred Clark

The more "competitive" and "exclusive" and zero-sum education becomes, the more warped and warping that education becomes. If college education turns into a game of musical chairs, then that is all it can ever be. Read more

Take it, it’s yours

Last updated on: March 6, 2019 at 4:28 pm By Fred Clark

Check out the late Luke Perry in "Jeremiah" and you'll learn something about the End of the World that Tim LaHaye never came close to understanding. Also: Media bubbles and autocrats; U.S. Grant on white evangelicals; and news-adjacent theater. Read more

The shock jocks are in charge now

Last updated on: March 5, 2019 at 5:36 pm By Fred Clark

Harvest Bible Chapel is/was “one of the 50 largest churches in America.” That’s an impressive-sounding category until you stop to think about it. Take a moment, though, and you’ll realize that most of the familiar names on such a list are recognizable because of their notoriety. “Church growth” is a popular topic in religious publishing, but the list of “the 50 largest churches in America” seems to offer more cautionary tales than it does models that other congregations would want... Read more

LBCF, No. 225: ‘An approved wanton’

Last updated on: March 1, 2019 at 11:42 am By Fred Clark

The Not What It Looks Like plot twist is one of the oldest rom-com tricks in the book, but Jerry Jenkins botches the set-up, plays it backwards, and then drags it out for way too long (and then longer still) until we hate every character involved. Read more

Without getting killed or caught

Last updated on: March 11, 2019 at 4:48 pm By Fred Clark

If half of what Michael Cohen testified can be corroborated and proved, then Donald Trump is Spiro Agnew on steroids. Also: The affair is no longer "alleged;" Romans 13 deserves better readers; and Ken Starr is horrible. Read more

We can never know the hands we’re in until we feel them grip

Last updated on: February 26, 2019 at 2:59 pm By Fred Clark

Hey, remember that time when white evangelical gatekeepers had a kangaroo-court "heresy trial" for a preacher who talked too much about the poor and the hungry? Also: "Small government" means unpaid homework; Pat Robertson can't keep up; and a happy benediction for a three-month church service. Read more

Sometimes you feel like a nut

Last updated on: February 25, 2019 at 6:18 pm By Fred Clark

Simple math suggests that dark-chocolate Almond Joys ought to exist. But, alas, for now they exist only in theory. Read more

We’re bouncing into Graceland

Last updated on: February 24, 2019 at 5:53 pm By Fred Clark

Climate researchers say that by the time my daughters are the age I am now, Philadelphia is going to feel like Memphis. (Alas, without inheriting that city's music and food.) Plus: Religious liberty, Space Mountain spies, the forgotten Temple, and the trajectory of all conspiracy theories. Read more

LBCF, No. 224: ‘My Lunch With Chaim’

Last updated on: February 22, 2019 at 12:46 pm By Fred Clark

The authors’ Jesus, in other words, corrects what they perceive as the errors of the Jesus of the Gospels. Jesus 1.0 rejected the temptation of power. Jesus 2.0, they say, will return to seize power with relish. Read more