I like this bit from comedian Patton Oswalt: "What if I 1,000-percent believed ... that there was a giant, invisible anus hovering over me, and if I wasn't nice, and helpful, and courteous and charitable to everyone I met, the anus would appear, suck me up into it, and I would be devoured by shit piranhas? I would be the nicest guy you ever met." But I don't think such a belief really would make him a nice guy at all. Read more
The Indiana governor just signed into law something called a "Religious Freedom Restoration Act." But the law itself is nothing like its 1993 namesake. It's an artificial Lemon. Indiana's new law is not an attempt to hold statutes restricting religious liberty to strict scrutiny. It is, rather, a reaffirmation and expansion of the obnoxious logic of the Oregon v. Smith ruling that the real RFRA was written to correct. And it goes beyond that, to grant this power to discriminate not just to the state itself, but to private businesses and business owners. Read more
"When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place." Read more
Most evangelical fiction has conveyed this evangelistic impulse -- albeit with the unfortunate awkwardness and fecklessness that characterizes too much of their evangelism. But that's not what one finds in Left Behind. Here you find little concern -- and even less of a sense of responsibility -- for the plight of the untold millions. What one finds instead is a sense of triumphalism. Those "inside the fold" feel no sense of obligation to those on the outside -- they are bad people who are getting what they deserve and the godly remnant gets to watch, more in delight than in sadness. Read more
Phil Robertson isn't just saying that his atheist neighbors are all sub-human reavers, he's also saying that he would be a reaver himself if he hadn't gotten "saved" at the right kind of church. His statement about those atheist neighbors is demonstrably ignorant. Let's hope he's equally ignorant about himself and that he doesn't have any actual knowledge that what he's accusing himself of might be true. Read more
"Duck Dynasty" grandpappy Phil Robertson made an appalling confession, which he presented in the form of an accusation. Robertson revealed a horrific fantasy of his, wrapped up in a long story that was kind of like the old "Aristocrats!" joke, except he changed the punchline to "The Atheists!" What he was telling us, in sum, was that the only reason he doesn't constantly torture, rape and murder is that he believes God would punish him for it. Read more
Sen. Ted Cruz does not want to come on up for the Rising. Plus: The Badger and the cattywampus; J.I. Packer departs evangelicalism; the Big Box and the invisible hand; the "true measure of greatness;" and a reminder that Kermit is the anti-Prufrock. Read more
By refusing to acknowledge or accept that part of their job, the courts are routinely screwing over local officials who don't have the option of retreating to some lofty, abstract, above-the-fray perch. Those local officials are required -- by laws upheld by the courts -- to render judgments about the legitimacy and sincerity of religious claims. And that's true whether or not the courts ever deign to provide them any guidance for doing so. Read more
Here's how to do it. First, look at The Guardian's headline for the story above: "Claims of Satanic cult and child sacrifices in London are baseless, judge rules." That seems like good news, but it also doesn't say anything about you. And that's the key to this process -- learning to make it all about you. All that requires is a simple tweaking of that headline: "Judge refuses to prosecute Satanic cult and child sacrifices in London." Read more
"Go in to your father’s concubines, the ones he has left to look after the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened." Read more
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