The training montage in "Rocky II" offers an implausible -- maybe even impossible -- version of Philadelphia geography. Philly journalist Dan McQuade plotted out Rocky's run on a real map of the city and found a messy, mixed-up route of more than 30 miles. Biblical scholars have been doing the same thing, with similar results, examining the geography of the Gospel of John. Read more
Franklin Graham is, yet again, irked and bothered and wrong. This time it's about not giving toys strict gender labels at Target. Also: The only band that matters; petty tyranny; excluded from communion but not, technically, excommunicated; and duct tape ... in spaaaace! Read more
Then I said, "Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth." Then he said to me, "See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread." Read more
It's Friday the 14th, but let's have some Douglass anyway: "Scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." Read more
We aren't told the specifics of the awful thing or things that Jeff did. He may have cheated. Or drank. Or maybe he hit her. Perhaps all three. For LaHaye and Jenkins, it really doesn't matter what he did, all that matters is Sharon's duty as a good, godly wife to forgive him and preserve their marriage no matter what. Read more
"Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." Read more
For Scott Walker, et. al., the word "abortion" refers to evil baby-killing performed on behalf of irresponsible sluts for unknown -- but presumably evil and indefensible -- reasons. The termination of a pregnancy by good, white, Christian people may be the same procedure, but since they're good, non-slutty people, they get to call it something else. Read more
Considering the ever-changing nature of gas prices, most of us would barely notice and quickly forget about a much-needed update in the gas tax. But we'll definitely notice what happens to our roads, bridges and tunnels without it. Plus: Adoption and the human condition, get ready to make a whole bunch of wishes, Burger King vs. the Book of Kells, and southpaw kangaroos. Read more
Yolanda Pierce on the "cauldron of proslavery ideology" that shaped American theology. LBJ on the Voting Rights Act, 50 years before John Roberts killed it. John Oliver on sex education. Robert Chao Romero on "Montesinos and the Birth of Brown Theology." And Tina Dupuy on guns and people who want to be "pro-life." Read more
A man known for boorish behavior and saying appalling things demonstrates boorish behavior and says appalling things, and is thus criticized by the people who have long loved him for his boorish behavior and his enthusiasm for saying appalling things. OK, then. Plus: More mugshots, the ghost at our beach house, how tides work, Jonah-blogging, and why church youth groups are not masters of their own domain. Read more
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