The execution of Mary Dyer obviously had rather extreme consequences for her as an individual from a religious minority, but the consequences of that execution for the religion of the Puritan majority was even more extreme. It required that majority religion to take the shape of a political weapon. And it meant that this function as a coercive, weaponized tool of political power trumped any other consideration of creed or dogma or doctrine. Read more
We could keep corporations from enjoying the same legal protections as religious minorities by stripping religious minorities of all legal protections, but there's probably a better way to go about that. Also: Evangelical pick-up lines; the parable of the shrewd manager; more boring infrastructure; a sad milestone for Samantha Field; and the children's game that defines evil. Read more
Fundamentalists see the "synoptic problem" as the wrong kind of problem -- as an embarrassing mistake that needs to be corrected by "harmonizing" the Gospels. But it's not that kind of problem. It's a literary detective story. It's an ancient puzzle challenging us to try to solve it. And it's really, really cool. Read more
Hope may seem like it's about the far-off future, but it's always about the present. Optimism is about the future, hope is about right now. Hope, as Vaclav Havel said, "is not the convictions that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." Read more
Seriously, just look around. Does it look like the meek are inheriting the earth? Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled? Does it look like the merciful are being shown mercy? Jesus was meek and merciful and hungry for justice and look where that got him. They killed him. We killed him. Power won. Read more
This is a false choice and a Bad Thing: "It may fairly be said that leaving accommodation to the political process will place at a relative disadvantage those religious practices that are not widely engaged in; but that unavoidable consequence of democratic government must be preferred to a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself or in which judges weigh the social importance of all laws against the centrality of all religious beliefs." Read more
As a Christian, I believe that our best indicator of the character of God comes from the example of Jesus Christ, and I have a rather hard time picturing Jesus roasting pagan babies on a spit. But again, this is a belief based on the nature of God, not on the forensic calculus of an abstract age of accountability. I don't know if the concept is a wrong answer, but I'm pretty sure it's an answer to the wrong question. Read more
This weaponized use of religious exemptions has changed the context of the entire conversation that previously shaped our legal and neighborly accommodation of such exemptions. It is no longer about the classic examples of exemptions that are fundamentally defensive in character. This is an effort to use religious exemptions as an offensive weapon for political purposes that have nothing to do with the religious beliefs supposedly in question. Read more
Why are John and Matthew Hagee worried about future generations if the world is going to end shortly after the next "Blood Moon"? Plus: Sidd Finch, the number of the crank, Excalibur, Stephen King, and a reminder that "Jolene" is not that kind of love song. Read more
Please waste your time at work reading blogs and not playing Pac-Man on Google Maps. Plus: Isaac Newton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the name makes the band, secret salaries, and why all Real True Christians love the death penalty, hate gays, and don't believe in climate change. Read more
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