"Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Read more
"Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Read more
Rayford’s newfound resolve to evangelize his daughter seems to have less to do with her eternal fate than it does with his own determination to exculpate himself, to fulfill his obligation to “force her” to choose and be done with it. As ever, it’s all about him. This is what the pressure to evangelize is often about. Read more
Town hall meetings, public forums, letters, phone calls, etc., are only a starting point. Just as this legislation audaciously exceeds almost anything we've ever seen in terms of its harm and its malice, so too must our response exceed almost anything we've ever seen or done before. It's time to read up on ACT UP. Read more
Donald Trump's comments on the Civil War are surprisingly ignorant, even when accounting for the fact that this is Donald Trump and his boundless ignorance should no longer be surprising. Historians have responded to the president's confused statement, but I'm left longing for an alternate-history novel that reimagines the Jackson Era without Jackson. That could be fun. Read more
This is an existential problem. It gnaws at our identity, our sense of who we are. And it gets harder and harder to deal with every time our communities or our subculture is wracked with the kind of scandal that put that local pastor behind bars. Read more
Today’s protest anthem and Monday morning open thread comes courtesy of Nobel Literature laureate Bob Dylan. This song should be read alongside Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. Same idea — right down to the parallel meditations on Judas Iscariot. Read more
Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the Civil Rights Movement of Martin come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me." Read more
Please note that monkey-wrenching a despicably white nationalist Trump initiative with phone calls is not the paramount duty of patriots and neighbors at this time. We shouldn't be making calls like that until after we've called our senators and representatives and flooded those phone-lines with sincere, passionately civil statements to hold those members of Congress accountable for holding Trump accountable. But this particular monkey wrench is available, and the machine needs to be stopped. Read more
Rayford Steele gets a thrill from the idea that he is living in “the most cataclysmic period in the history of the world.” That thrill — which plays a big role in the allure of Rapture-mania Christianity — comes from the idea that this makes him special, that it makes his life more meaningful than it might otherwise seem. That attitude only makes sense from an extremely self-centered perspective: Sure, the apocalypse means widespread suffering and death, but it makes MY life more significant, so on balance that’s a plus. Read more
The Trump administration today released a slap-dash, vague, one-page document on the subject of "Tax Reform." It offers little in the way of details, just a series of somewhat-connected bullet-points relating to this general theme. This is not a plan or a proposal, but a wish-list of the various -- and often contradictory -- ingredients that Trump's various advisers might want to see should such a plan or proposal ever get written. But, hey, if a loosely related series of bullet points is good enough for the White House, then it's good enough for me. Read more
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