However they got there, and whatever it is they think they mean, this is a Very Bad thing, Nothing good has ever come from Christians asserting that they and Jews worship different gods. This is an ideology that has fueled centuries of oppression, injustice and bloodshed -- including the monstrous genocide of the 20th century. This notion also has far-reaching implications for Christians themselves, including the basic assertion that God is untrustworthy. Read more
"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks ..." Read more
Some Christmas traditions that shouldn't be forgotten, including Anne Lamott, the Pogues, David Sedaris, and Kenny Loggins. Plus Drew G.I. Hart reminding us that there's so very much more to the story than the "sweet baby Jesus [who] gives us warm fuzzy feelings." Read more
Mandy Patinkin wishes that Sen. Ted Cruz better understood Inigo Montoya. (I just wish he had listened to Vizzini.) Also: Five failed prophecies for 2015; the biblical prophets and the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special; when language gets strangled to death. Read more
Wil Gafney on Wheaton's whitening of faith; Wheaton student Ellie Roth and alumnus Tobin Grant discuss the school's shame; Susan Campbell and Ivy George examine this fear-driven "orthodoxy;" and John Schmalzbauer provides more historical context. Read more
This stinks to high heaven. Wheaton loves to think of itself as the "Harvard of evangelicalism." It's acting like the Bob Jones of evangelicalism. And Wheaton's current president, Philip Ryken, seems determined to turn it into the Corinthian College of evangelicalism. Read more
Suspending a tenured professor based on an implausible twisting of her words is not polite. Abusing administrative power is not polite. Attempting to intimidate your entire faculty is not polite. And scapegoating a professor as retaliation against student leaders for their commendable behavior is not polite. Read more
Bob Smietana's exposé of a spiritually, financially, physically and sexually abusive "prosperity gospel" cult in Nashville is a fascinating, devastating and disturbing read. But it's the link between that cult and one of the most popular "worship song" writers in white evangelicalism that gives this story broader importance. Read more
This is a few hours early, but let me wish a happy and blessed winter solstice to everyone here in the northern half of the world. Starting tomorrow, the days will get a little lighter. Here’s Dar Williams with one of my favorite Solstice-y things. I loved this bit in the Doctor Who Christmas special a few years back: On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns... Read more
Lamont Cranston, these pedants insist, was an uncharitable and uncivil fellow. He failed in his moral duty to give everyone the eternal and inexhaustible benefit of the doubt at all times. He failed the test of the presumption of charity, which they say means that everyone, everywhere should always be assumed to be acting and arguing in good faith. These are the Rules of civility and charity, and these Rules must always be followed. Read more
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