"Tiny Dancer" is a lovely song, but it's ill-suited for political rallies -- particularly for authoritarian, make-America-white-again, xenophobic, brimming-with-violence Donald Trump rallies, where the song has become an inexplicable staple of Trump's weird liturgy. Here we consider 15 alternative Elton John songs that might be better suited for use at a Trump rally. Read more
"Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, 'Woman, you are set free from your ailment.' When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God." Read more
The authors offer a dull, but passable description of a successful revival meeting, and it sounds very much like actual revival meetings I have actually witnessed. And therein lies the problem: This gathering should be nothing like the actual revival meetings I have actually witnessed. Read more
What if we rewrote "The Da Vinci Code" as an extended episode of "Leverage"? That's what you'll find in Ariel Sabar's amazing attempt to determine the provenance of the allegedly ancient papyrus fragment known as the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. Also: "Hating Hillary" ca. 1996; baby steps for the SBC and a Catholic bishop; and another reminder that Eric Metaxas is a silly, silly man. Read more
The enormous change in public response might be more encouraging if the unit of measurement weren't so horrifying. It is, undeniably, evidence of progress that our communities, our media, our politicians and churches have gotten better at publicly mourning the mass-slaughter of gay men. It is damnably indefensible that violence against LGBT people remains such a constant that it can serve as such a measurement of cultural attitudes over time. Read more
"And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love," the playwright said, like a pointing finger. We can study that finger and dismiss that as only a hollow, empty word. Or we can start walking in the direction it's pointing. Read more
This is something humans do. When disaster strikes -- fire, flood, mine explosion, school bus accident, terrorist attack, tsunami, Reawakening of the Old Ones -- people get scared and desperate and come together, often at a church. We are born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward, and just as surely we will respond to that trouble by coming together and lighting candles. Read more
What we have here is a school -- an elementary school -- assuring every parent of every child there that school officials actively support shorter statutes of limitations for sexual crimes against children. "We want to make it harder for the state to prosecute those who prey on children sexually," school officials are telling the parents of the children in their care. "And we'd like you to help us do it." Read more
An army of energized, motivated readers has pored over more than 30,000 of Hillary Clinton's emails -- 55,000 pages of everything she sent or received as Secretary of State from 2009 through 2013. Those emails were scrutinized by journalists, opposition-research tricksters, Fox News interns, dark-money PACs, and squadrons of hostile lawyers. What they found will shock you. Read more
That one time Muhammad Ali met with Billy Graham demonstrates, yet again, the huge change in white evangelicalism as it shifted from Billy Graham mode into Franklin Graham mode. And it reminds us of how disastrously awful that change has been. Plus: Franklin loses a fight with Bella Abzug; Elihu as proto-Calvinist; and a literal re-enactment of Matthew 12:11. Read more
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