Live TV, prime time, national stage. "Baby I'm a ...." He swats the mic stand over almost contemptuously, catches it with his foot and flips it back up so that it arches perfectly back into his waiting hand. "... Star." Whoa. Read more
Live TV, prime time, national stage. "Baby I'm a ...." He swats the mic stand over almost contemptuously, catches it with his foot and flips it back up so that it arches perfectly back into his waiting hand. "... Star." Whoa. Read more
Voting isn't supposed to be about "providing me with indulgence and satisfaction." It's not a self-affirming consumer choice or a narcissistic performance of moral superiority. It's about taking responsibility, not avoiding it. Also: Record-setting heat sets stage for claims of global cooling; a personal testimony; and the breakfast of champions. Read more
Honoring Harriet Tubman on official currency is somewhat ironic, of course, since Tubman was a notorious thief. She stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Legally and constitutionally, that's what it meant to liberate slaves in antebellum America. Read more
"An Unbelievable Story of Rape" by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller has been awarded a Pulitzer prize. This is correct. If you haven't read it, go read it now. Also: UC Davis and the Streisand effect; trespassing vs. civil disobedience; James Dobson worries about demographic purity; and a pop-music artifact that makes me smile. Read more
What do you suppose all these people do for a living? That's a complicated subject here in the post-Rapture world of the Great Tribulation. Everyone can't be like Buck and Rayford -- with a spiffy new job working directly for the Antichrist. So what do all these other people do? Read more
The victims of injustice tend to have a far better theological track record than the defenders, perpetrators, and beneficiaries of it. We should try learning from them for a change. Perhaps it would be better to learn about the Bible from the people who got it right than to continue learning about the Bible from people who insist on getting it wrong. Read more
‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. Read more
When it comes to the biblical story of Joseph, I'm with John Calvin. Joseph exploited the hungry and enslaved the entire world to curry favor with a tyrant. And that, Calvin concluded, was simply indefensible. "It is certain that all contracts which are not formed according to the rule of charity are vicious in the sight of God," the reformer wrote in his commentary on Genesis. Read more
Contemporary American-style evangelism is made even stranger by the fact that it seems devoid of content. It's become a turtles-all-the-way-down exercise with no apparent real bottom. Evangelism means, literally, the telling of good news. Surely there must be more to this good news than simply that the hearers of it become obliged to turn around and tell it to others. Read more
Ted Cruz fought a losing legal battle in defense of a Texas ban on the sale of dildos, arguing that the government has the right, and the duty, to prohibit masturbation. Basically he wants to shove so much government up in everybody's business that there'd be no room in there for anything else. Also: -30- for ALL CAPS from the NWS; the hack gap and hailstorms; and the hermeneutics of English majors. Read more
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