Neither Buck nor Steve seems to remember that they're in the journalism business. Neither of them recalls that the best weapon against shadowy conspiracies is the bright light of public exposure. It never occurs to either of these Woodward and Bernstein wanna-bes that the head of the London Stock Exchange killing a policeman might constitute news. When it comes to actually reporting on what he has learned, our Intrepid Reporter turns out to be extremely, well, trepid. Read more
It seems we'll be getting a new Star Trek series. Cool. Here's what I'd like to see from it. Read more
Throughout much of the U.S. it's an election day. It's not a big sexy presidential election day, more of a nuts-and-bolts, boring-business-of-civilization election day. But those matter, too, a lot. Read more
Digby on David Barton's growing influence in the Republican Party. Rick Pearlstein and Brad DeLong have more to say about the current state of the GOP. The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry states it plain. And Samantha Field on turning away from lies she'd been taught. Read more
In other words, what other Christians regard as a once-and-for-all showdown between love and power at Calvary, premillennial dispensationalists view as a Round 1 loss to be made up for in Round 2, when power gets defeated not by love, but by an even greater power. That suggests a moral universe in which the most important difference between good and evil is simply that good is stronger. Read more
Accept that Hell is real and that it is infinitely more important than any earthly concerns and suddenly the very things that might compel you to attend to this-worldly needs and injustices -- compassion, empathy, faith, hope, love -- become reasons NOT to do so. ... If Hell is real, then you are a monster unless you drop everything else and become like Rayford Steele -- the sort of person who cannot allow himself to care if his co-workers all regard him as a pushy jerk and a nutcase zealot. Read more
Maybe it's never happened to you. But if you've ever had that experience of having a long-held, unacknowledged misconception corrected the hard way, then you'll recognize the same thing when it happens to others when you see them stepping outside of their communities of misconception and saying something out loud for the first time to others who know better. Read more
As desperate as they are to be impressive, it's just not possible for readers to be impressed with the toadying instincts of Buck and Rayford, Jenkins and LaHaye. The best one can do, instead, is to feel a measure of pity for four characters so earnestly desiring to be liked but so confused about what might make them likable -- so intent on being admired, but so utterly clueless as to what is admirable. Read more
Every moment of Buck's life for the past two weeks has been accounted for in our story so far. Almost none of that time has been spent on this assignment, even tangentially. He flew from Chicago to New York to London to Germany to New York and back to Chicago. None of that travel was in any way related to this project. He ate cookies with Chloe and dinner with Rayford and fish and chips with Alan Tompkins. We've seen him flirt with three women and mistreat a fourth. We've seen him -- twice -- duck into the bathroom to search his soul. But we never saw him research or write anything for this article. Read more
It may be helpful here to remember that Left Behind's dual protagonists also serve as wish-fulfillment surrogates for the book's dual authors. Manly, attractive airline pilot Rayford Steele is Tim LaHaye's Mary Sue stand-in, and jet-setting, award-winning journalist Buck Williams embodies the fantasy of Jerry Jenkins. Read more
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