slacktivist - Page 2 of 728 - "Test everything; hold fast to what is good."

Do they love you the same as me?

March 12, 2019 By Fred Clark

If God is a monster, then we are damned. And vice versa. Plus: Rich people caught cheating at musical chairs; and the tawdriness of international espionage. Read more

A suspiciously quiet anniversary

March 9, 2019 By Fred Clark

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If it wasn’t a lie, then everything described above would be happening. None of it is. Why not? Because even the people telling this lie cannot manage to believe it. Read more

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

March 8, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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

March 7, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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

March 6, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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

March 5, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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’

March 1, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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

February 28, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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

February 26, 2019 By Fred Clark

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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