"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets." Read more
"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets." Read more
At some point I'm sure you've sat alone in a room reading a better book than Left Behind and you've read something that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, something that made you look up from the page and glance around the room because you were no longer quite so sure you were alone. Whether you were reading Stephen King or Julian of Norwich, the physical sensation is the same. Read more
Today is not Mexican Independence Day, but it is the anniversary of the day I met my wife. Also: Donald Trump doesn't need therapy, he needs to repent; fearing refugees makes as much sense as fearing wildfire evacuees; and the racist idea that people of color are distinct from the "working class." Read more
You might not think that a South Jersey slumlord would be only one step removed from a kleptocratic tyrant like Mobutu Sese Seko, but connections like that are woven throughout Franklin Foer's long report on Paul Manafort. The article reads like an episode guide to "The Blacklist" -- an endless parade of rogues, criminals, tyrants, oligarchs, Watergate ratf--kers, arms dealers, and almost anyone you've ever written an Amnesty International letter to on behalf of some political prisoner. And the man connecting all those figures is now running Donald Trump's campaign. Read more
When a New Jersey school board member posts Facebook diatribes railing against immigrants and saying "America needs to get rid of people like you," the main problem isn't that she's being "offensive." The main problem is that she's forcefully declaring that she is unwilling and unable to serve the students and families in the school district. Also: A "top evangelical school;" biblical dudehood; killing a neighborhood for profit; and "Mercy Ministries" is neither merciful nor a ministry. Read more
It was poor planning on Bruce's part not to inform his congregation about the first five of the Seal Judgments until after they had already begun. It seems like that bit would have been both more impressive and more practical if he'd shared this information before the war and famine and mass-martyrdom began. But there's still just barely time to foretell the next big calamity in the sequence -- the massive earthquake that John's Apocalypse describes as the sixth seal. Read more
"One may reject the claims of sainthood made on his behalf (he never made any such claim himself, by the way), one may also reject sainthood as an ideal and therefore feel that his basic aims were anti-human: but regarded simply as a politician, and compared with the other leading political figures of our time, how clean a smell he has managed to leave behind!" Read more
"It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever -- This is true: For unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of Peace." Read more
Protect religious groups you admire by protecting religious groups you do not admire. Otherwise you're just trying to find a loophole in the Golden Rule -- trying to compel others to do unto us as we would have them do while exempting ourselves from any obligation to do unto them as they would have us do. And that's not good. Read more
Several years ago I set up an RSS subscription for a Google News Alert for the word "Satanic." This has served me well by keeping me up to speed on the latest witches and enemies and such being accused of being Satanic baby-killers. But it's also led me to read hundreds of other articles simply because they popped into my RSS reader due to their containing the word "Satanic." Here's what I've learned from those articles. Read more
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