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
But the main thing in that youth group -- the paramount, central thing -- was sex. Sex, and the not having of it, was the essential defining characteristic of that youth group, and of the subculture and tribe that produced it. In practice, in the undeniable day-to-day experience of that youth group and that tribe, sex and the not having of it were the most important thing that was said and taught and experienced of God. Sex and the not having of it were conveyed as the essential meaning of the faith. Read more
The astonishing thing to me about the Dennis Hastert story -- the part I can't manage to wrap my mind around -- is that knowing this about himself, knowing his own secret history, he still chose to run for office and to place himself in the public eye. Read more
A sex scandal is not the same thing as "public corruption or a corruption scandal." But when a sex scandal leads to extortion, that distinction goes away. A politician who is willing to pay someone millions of dollars to keep quiet may also be a politician who is willing to vote or deregulate or administer their duties in a way that favors those leveraging their secrets against them. And that is the very definition of public corruption. Read more
Gay lions on an anachronistic ark, curses on people who don't believe in superstition, an honest assessment of George Weigel and/or Robert George, the great Michigan waffle war, and nothing in veterinary medicine makes sense. Read more
There's a lot to criticize in the early-20th-century "Americanization" efforts of the various Protestant home mission societies, but there's also a lot to admire. A hundred years later, a new council of prominent spokespeople for America's Christian Values wants to revive all of the worst aspects of those efforts, while rejecting all that was good about them. Read more
I've found something that's sort of a piece of good news from the evangelical subculture. Plus: The holes in Swiss cheese; the loneliness of the small-town librarian; and Charlie the pencil-pushing Mexican demon is now also, apparently, gay. Read more
For those unfamiliar with the TV show "Game of Thrones," this is a picture of Ramsey Snow, and he's a monster. He's smiling in that picture, and that can't be good, because the only thing that makes Ramsey Snow smile is hurting people. His proudest achievement is the horrible torture he has wreaked on the wicked traitor Theon Greyjoy -- a kind of Hell. Read more
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