Concordance-ism doesn't ask us to read the Bible. It asks us to "look up" things in the Bible -- to consult the Bible without reading it. I would say this is a terrible, terrible way to read the Bible, but, again, it's NOT reading. And it often winds up being terribly misleading. Read more
Purely by chance, today's classic Left Behind installment (i.e.: re-run) features a random Carol Brady reference. RIP Florence Henderson. In this terrible year, we're even losing our Wessonality. Click through for a boggling tour of one of the nastiest Lies for Jesus and how anti-abortion urban legends can make "Christian" fiction incomprehensible. Read more
Whether we're talking about witch-hunters in Salem, or Warnke-citing prosecutors in a 1980s daycare center case, or that guy at your church forwarding emails about Planned Parenthood "selling baby parts," there's no actual panic in these immoral "moral panics." Fear and outrage are not the main factors. They're having fun. They're enjoying this. Read more
"Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." Read more
""OK, kids, here's a fun little game where we train you to be monstrous contenders in a Hobbesian war of all against all. With music! Life is zero-sum, kiddies. Remember that your happiness derives from others' loss, and others' happiness means less for you! You are ultimately, and always, utterly alone." Read more
Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” Read more
I've seen Left Behind described as a "page-turner," but you'd have to be turning those pages really, really fast for any of this to seem to make sense. Read more
Celia Riley, Seth Stevenson, and Jonathan Martin respond to the election. Ruth Ben-Ghiat on looking squarely at the things we'd rather not see. Maria Konnikova on why it's so hard to tell victims they've been conned. Read more
Things are not normal. We need to say that and keep saying that. So here's a version of the previously normal round-up for our abnormal times, including: saving Bonhoeffer from America; how "populist" authoritarianism turned corrupt in Italy, deadly in the Philippines; some good advice on passports; and the Jersey-est story of the week. Read more
If you belong to a white evangelical church that supported Donald Trump, then it's time to go. Don't go quietly, but go. Now. You are not changing them, but if you stay, they will change you. So guard your soul, preserve whatever capacity you want to have for loving God and loving your neighbor, and get out of there. Read more
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