Mark's Gospel seems like a rough first draft, like the work of someone racing to get everything down on paper as quickly as possible. That's reflected in the book's abrupt ending, where it just sort of stops, mid-story. That ending was so frustrating for some later Christians that they felt compelled to give the book a proper conclusion, and now it has more endings that Peter Jackson's "Return of the King." Read more
This is part of what frightens and angers me about the phenomenal popularity of the Worst Books Ever Written. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are spreading their political agenda and worldview -- their triumphalist, Jonah-like delight in the damnation of their enemies, their sociopathic lack of empathy -- and the popularity of this agenda in turn lends it a kind of spiritual authority. Read more
When hardship comes good neighbors often reach out to help. And often that means bringing over a casserole. That's a tangible, practical gesture. And it's a way of saying and showing that we're here for you, and we want to help. But not everybody gets a casserole. Some people, it seems, are not perceived as being casserole-worthy. Read more
This morning I saw a kid in an Eagle costume get caught up in the gorgeous performance of gospel worship chorus, simultaneously encountering something sublime while standing there in a ridiculous oversize foam mascot head. I hope that when I spoke in that same chapel service, the students were able to similarly forget about my own ridiculous costume long enough to encounter something meaningful. Read more
When I was a gung-ho member of my church youth group, I was all prepared for someone to walk up and ask me "What is the gospel?" I'd have answered with something like the Navigators' "Bridge to Life" illustration explaining the Good News that you were damned to Hell because God hates your sin, but that you could still be saved because God poured out all of God's infinite hate onto Jesus instead of you, making possible the impossibility of divine mercy and allowing you to go to Heaven instead of Hell. That's not how I'd answer that question now. Read more
Monday miscellany, including: the scapegoat of the House; horrible grown-ups; waiting for the iSponge; MLK and his namesake; fundamentalist culture; a new home for Oklahoma's Nehushtan; and how imaginary Planned Parenthood is like the First Citiwide Change Bank. Read more
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that scripture is that which is "useful" for "training in justice." Weirdly, though, the Christians who seem fondest of quoting this verse are the least likely to see "training in justice" as having anything to do with scripture. Read more
"But afterwards, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.'" Read more
This week, for me, wound up being all about a hastily planned trip to Vermont, where my dad is recovering from a double-bypass heart surgery. All things considered, he's doing well. Read more
It seems like Chloe is taking a cab from the airport. You know, the airport that's shut down. The airport where one of our main characters is a pilot who is now idle at home because no planes are flying. The airport that our other main character fled in order to charter an expensive private flight to New York because no planes are flying. That airport. Chloe apparently flew there. On a plane. Read more
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