Why Al Mohler is jealous of the LDS church. How West Virginia Republicans are marking the one-year anniversary of a toxic spill. Another Republican thinks identifying with Time-Warner Cable and Comcast will win voters' hearts. And a reminder to never try to say anything about the doctrine of the Trinity. Read more
Please join me in reading Buzzfeed's profile of "men's rights" champion Paul Elam. American conservatives do not like journalists and aid-workers. Why it's dangerous to say "secular" when you actually mean "profane." Plus more bad religious comic books, Captain Jack, and what "Caddyshack" can teach us about American history. Read more
Molly Worthen, James Baldwin, Jeet Heer, and Natasha Chart all, in different ways, reflect on the "great emotional and intellectual dishonesty" of the middle of the road. Read more
So from now on, when Bryan Fischer arrives at the American Family Association studio in the AFA headquarters to produce his daily AFA radio show on behalf of the AFA, the AFA wants you to know that he probably doesn't speak for them, unless he does. Read more
The following is a work of fanfiction -- a mash-up of two of the most appalling things I have ever read: Chapter 14 of Nicolae and Chapter 5 of the book of Numbers (which I quote from here in the New King James translation preferred by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins). This is my idea of how this passage in Nicolae might have read if Rayford Steele stuck to a truly biblical view on abortion. Read more
Ask a 21st-century American Christian if getting a tattoo is a sin, it's far less likely that they will respond by citing Paul's argument in Romans or Galatians and far more likely they'll respond by babbling about "ceremonial laws" or some other contemporary concoction that would've left Paul bewildered to hear of it. There's an old saying that if one student fails the final exam, it's their fault, but if every student fails the final, then it's their teacher's fault. So maybe that's true here too. Maybe the Apostle Paul was just a lousy writer. Read more
What we see here, in other words, is the kind of stupidity that we might expect from people with a diminished mental capacity, yet it comes from people who otherwise show that they do not have a diminished mental capacity. What they're displaying, then, is not a lack of mental capacity, but a rejection of it. They are choosing to be stupid -- choosing to behave as though they were stupid. Read more
Strachan's fawning flattery is directed at an audience of conservative white Christians who love to sing "Dare to be a Daniel / Dare to stand alone!" This is a white evangelical subculture that replaced faith with fantasy decades ago. For them, discipleship means leveling up in a fantasy role-playing game in which they pretend to be heroic warriors battling against Satanic baby-killers, relativists, evolutionists, postmodernists, New Agers, the Gay Lifestyle, and a whole Monster Manual of other imaginary horrors. Strachan invites them to play this game, and they love this game. Read more
Open a Bible at random and poke a finger arbitrarily at any verse and you're just as likely to encounter something bizarre, bewildering or bloody as you are to find something sweet and soporific. The Bible is not a collection of harmless, uplifting platitudes. It is not an almanac of pleasant sayings suitable for cross-stitching. It is not an endless catalog of slogans to be screened onto T-shirts or recited by the local Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of civic pacification. Read more
"Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt all about in the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, 'Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.' So he searched, but did not find the household gods." Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In