Every attitude expressed by Buck here — his condescending exploitation, his bitter, spiteful frustration — is reinforced later in the book or the series by born-again characters intended to be perceived as wholly reliable narrators. Hattie refuses to be merely a sexless and submissive helpmeet, so she is condemned as a slut. These are, in the world of Left Behind, binary options for women. Read more
"Yes, the strong gets more while the weak ones fade. Empty pockets don't ever make the grade. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own." Read more
Michele Bachmann still treats "Left Behind" as a how-to manual for politics. White Christians in Alabama are fine with disenfranchising black voters, but not with extramarital affairs. "I'm going to rewrite the 'Pina Colada Song' as a Palm Sunday story," somebody thought, and did. And Billy Sunday wasn't much of a hitter, but he once stole 82 bases in a single season. Read more
We can't just sit around and do nothing, we say. And thus something becomes our only option. And if it is our only option, it must be the correct option -- a duty and a moral imperative: We have to do something. And thus we've trained ourselves never to consider the possibility of everything or anything else. Read more
Today’s protest anthem and Saturday open thread comes courtesy of Daniel Amos/da. Keep on rockin’ in the free world. Read more
Jerry B. Jenkins sat at a computer and typed these words: “Let me give you an idea how a woman thinks.” And then — inexplicably, unforgivably — he kept writing. If ever the seas were going to boil, the skies were going to fall and the moon was going to turn to blood, it should have happened then. Read more
Another manufactured-housing community, another irresponsible landlord, another 49 families facing eviction and displacement. Same story, different day. Plus: Garry Wills on evangelicalism; the chemistry of Trump's America; alt-right Warnkes go after Guy Fieri; and A.Q. Smith does a pretty good Ron Sider impression. Read more
I still retain my evangelical impulse to look at any massive social injustice and think: We need another Great Awakening. We need revival, repentance, and conversion to a new way of life. But when that thought comes to me now, I don't invest much hope in it. Read more
Want single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care? So do I, and so does a majority of the American public. But a big chunk of that public will stop wanting this for themselves if getting it means that people of color have it too. So that desirable, necessary goal will remain elusive and impossible until we change that. Read more
The question, as always, is an attempt to find a loophole or an escape clause. Whenever we ask "Who is my neighbor?" what we really mean is "Who is not my neighbor?" or, less tactfully, "Can't you please just tell us that there's somebody we're allowed not to love?" Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In