As you select names for your characters, for the businesses where they work, and for the town or city in which your story is set, you may decide that these names should be not only apt, but Meaningful. Good for you. Meaningful Names can reinforce character and theme. But some subtlety is required. Read more
I'm sure not everyone in the UK who just voted to set fire to the bedsheets shared all of the ugly racism of UKIP supporters. Others apparently just thought it might be fun to swing the wrecking ball and see what happens. We could think of such people as Jesse Ventura Voters or as Arnold Schwarzenegger Voters or as Assholes Who Don't Care If Vulnerable People Suffer Just As Long As They, Personally, Are Entertained. Read more
While Donald Trump's evangelical outreach continues to flail -- "We've gotta spiritize this country!" -- another election year brings about the quadrennial ritual of articles fretting about the need for "religious outreach" by Democrats. Remember, though, that Hillary Clinton's long history with her United Methodist Church and her involvement with its women's groups doesn't count, because mainline Protestantism doesn't count. "Religious outreach by Democrats" only counts if it involves obsequious overtures to white evangelicals. Read more
"Ralph Reed worked for team Abramoff by mobilizing Christians opposed to gambling to shutter casinos. The only hitch: Reed was usually paid by other casinos who had a financial interest in eliminating their competitors. ... He was engaged in a kind of spiritual fraud: telling his supporters that he was opposed to gambling when, in fact, gambling was making him rich." Read more
Donald Trump's list of names is interesting both for who it includes and who it doesn't. I'm not talking about the conservative white evangelicals who have, commendably, been fierce critics of Trump, but about the absence of the names of some prominent white evangelical Trump-supporters and GOP-before-GOD culture-warriors. Why did those folks duck this list? Read more
Tsion Ben-Judah is being hunted down for preaching about Jesus. So he goes into hiding -- at a church that is very publicly preaching about Jesus. This seems like a bad idea. It's like being chased by dogs and then hiding in a Snausages factory. Read more
"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
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