If you read such Bible passages looking for any excuse to exempt yourself from the apostle's condemnation, this offers an ideal escape hatch. Preaching against self-love, ingratitude, love of money or love of pleasure can be a two-edged sword. But if you're heterosexual, and you're preaching against homosexuality, then you're safe. You've found the ideal target for self-exempting, self-justifying self-righteousness. Judgment is for Other People. Read more
Should I become a Prosperity Gospel televangelist? I've done what it's often helpful to do when contemplating this sort of major life decision: I've begun putting together a pro and con list of the potential advantages and disadvantages it would entail. Read more
"Long March of the Koalas" is near the top today in Amazon's list of best-selling books about "Science and Religion." It has some good company in that category, and it's an honor to see something I wrote listed alongside the latest book from Bill Nye (the Science Guy). On the other hand, seeing my handiwork listed alongside "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife" isn't quite as cool. Read more
Smart thoughts from Richard Beck, Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Marilynne Robinson, and Mikey Dickerson. Read more
Some half-thoughts for halfway through the week, including: the Fake Founding Fathers quote industry; the knuckle-trick for months of the year; a history of everyone I worked for in the 1990s; and the many things we might learn from the Ghost Club. Read more
It's just 99 cents, and compiles many of the posts here addressing, assessing, unpacking, or just straight-up mocking, the pernicious ideology of young-Earth creationism. Yet somehow it only comes out to about 84 pages. That's pretty succinct, considering just LISTING all the things that are wrong with young-Earth creationism would take thousands of pages more. Read more
What are we to make of Buck's apparent notion that the rabbi needs to be informed of the Christian belief that "Messiah has already come"? Does he imagine that Ben-Judah has never heard of this Christian belief before? I mean -- Jesus Christ -- the guy has surely heard the phrase "Jesus Christ." Read more
The world of this story has no children. This story takes place IN a world without children and yet it is not the story OF a world without children. That simply doesn't work. In a world without children, no other story can be told. Jerry Jenkins tries -- he tries to tell us stories of airline promotions, of secretive diplomacy and of mistaken-identity romantic blunders, but none of those stories seems possible in a world without children. None of those stories can be reconciled with the supposed setting of a world without children. Read more
Sections of this book: 1. Rayford Steele and Buck Williams are summoned to meetings at which they are offered highly paid jobs working for the Antichrist; 2. Buck vows never to take such a job; 3. Rayford vows never to take such a job; 4. Repeat sections 2-3; 5. Repeat section 4. ... Read more
Many others are out there, too, but they don't share the older brother's anger. They can hear the music and dancing inside and they want to go in to join the party. They really wish they could. But they're convinced they're not allowed to. They're convinced the Bible says they're not allowed to. Read more
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