If the gospel is not allowed to be audacious, then how can it possibly be good news? Audacity -- sheer, mind-boggling audacity -- is a core characteristic of the gospel. If your idea of the gospel isn't so audacious as to give you pause, then your idea of the gospel is far too small. Read more
This is an Official Statement announcing his change of "stance" on an "issue." Such Official Statements are a kind of ritual genre in the white evangelical tribe, and that genre both limits what can be said and shapes how it can be said. They cannot be about justice or injustice directly, but only about one's "stance" toward them. And they aren't constructed to accommodate or acknowledge actual people, only the "issues" that affect them. This displaces the conversation -- removing it several steps from the fierce urgency of now and pushing it off toward some more abstract and ethereal discussion of the relative validity of various possible "stances" and their status within the tribe. Read more
The religious right's assertion that it represented the moral high ground was widely accepted for many years. But once they were challenged to defend that assertion, it proved to be indefensible. That's why anti-gay ballot initiatives in the United States lost in 2012, and it's why Irish voters overwhelmingly endorsed marriage equality in 2015. Read more
Charles C. Mann and David Roberts on the future of our species. Dianna E. Anderson on a Mohlerette's attempt to make Jesus a right-winger. Alana Massey on white Protestantism and American racism. And Redditt Hudson, "I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing." Read more
I thought it was a newly discovered manuscript by Walter Wink, but it turns out it was a horse-racing result. Also: Obama has only 592 days left to ban all guns and put white people in FEMA camps; The Rock is not Jack Burton -- but he could be George Nada; and a single-take long tracking shot that's even better than the one from "Touch of Evil." Read more
let's start here, with this: "Sin is when you treat people as things." And let's consider what this suggests about sex and marriage and the relationship between those two things. I would guess at this point that some of my friends who advocate/enforce a traditional, authoritative set of rules for sexual morality are getting nervous and perhaps a bit defensive. They're probably worried that I heading toward a discussion in which I will question the rule that says sex can only be moral within the context of traditional marriage. But I'm afraid it's worse than that. Read more
"When a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean." Read more
Shouldn't the defenders of "persecuted" American Christians be upset when a Connecticut pastor gets gunned down in front of his church? Or isn't the freedom not to get shot part of what they mean by "religious liberty"? Also: Synchronized swirling science; spooky expense accounts; a peek behind the reality TV curtain; and the exorcists who don't seem interested in claiming their prize money. Read more
Our hero journalist does not behave like either a hero or a journalist. Instead, a bit absurdly, he sets out to charter a private plane by getting into the very long line at the counter of an airline that does not provide such a service. Read more
So just imagine this happens to you, at your church. You arrive for the Sunday morning service and you're greeted by 250 or so protesters. They're shouting and angry and they carry guns -- lots and lots of guns. And just so there's no mistaking the focus of their aggressive threats and anger, most of them are wearing T-shirts that say things like "F--k Christianity." Read more
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