Indiana Jones, the Antichrist, and Hell

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 3:39 pm By Fred Clark

The stories in the text provide the basis for other stories about those stories, and details from those new stories seep back into the popular understanding as though they were part of the original. The revised and expanded original then provides the basis for even more new stories, and the cycle repeats itself. The text feeds into popular culture and popular culture, in turn, feeds back into the text, and after multiple repetitions of that cycle we lose the ability to distinguish one from the other. Read more

When autumn leaves start to fall

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 5:00 pm By Fred Clark

The trees are very pretty here in late October. The lawn and the sidewalks and the bushes and the driveway are not. I apologize for neglecting this week's "Nicolae" post for a Tuesday spent with a rake and tarp. Read more

Here’s that ‘Anything Goes’ rant about evangelical sexual ethics

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 2:56 pm By Fred Clark

The evangelical ethics guild seems to have fashioned this mandatory boilerplate in the 1960s or 1970s, back when John Updike was publishing his earliest novels. And like an early Updike novel, it seems both moralistic and dated -- far removed from any conversation that's going on now. Read more

A radically un-radical, conservative call for ‘full acceptance of LGBT Christians in the church’

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 12:30 am By Fred Clark

David Gushee's "Changing Our Mind" calls for a church in which "the rules are the same" for all Christians -- regardless of sexual orientation. That's the radically un-radical core of his message. And maybe also the un-radically radical aspect of it. It doesn't seek to amend or to overturn conservative Christian ideas about marriage and sexual ethics, only to expand them to apply equally to LGBT Christians as well. Read more

Actually, it’s about …

Last updated on: October 28, 2014 at 1:26 pm By Fred Clark

Laughing at bullies, oppressors, and the pompous defenders of injustice is almost never sufficient. It may not even be necessary. But I think it helps. And anyway, it's funny. Read more

This is a big deal: David Gushee’s ‘Changing Our Mind’

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 11:19 pm By Fred Clark

"It is difficult to overstate the potential impact of Gushee’s defection. His Christian ethics textbook, Kingdom Ethics, co-authored with the late Glen Stassen, is widely respected and was named a 2004 Christianity Today book of the year. He serves as theologian-in-residence for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a coalition of 15 theological schools, 150 ministries, and 1,800 Baptist churches nationwide. ... Gushee is not someone who can be easily dismissed." Read more

Abraham wasn’t like us, but we’re also not like Abraham

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 2:08 pm By Fred Clark

The idea that God speaks directly and unambiguously to humans is a given in the story of Abraham. The idea that God speaks directly and unambiguously to humans now is simply false. When that story is invoked today in support of the claim that we have precisely the same kind of direct and unambiguous access to divine command as Abraham had, then something dangerously wrong is going on. Read more

Throw it in the hoosegow

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 10:03 am By Fred Clark

Happy Monday. Here's some stuff about patriotic secessionists, a bishop's hospitality, Frank Peretti and Neil Gaiman, the army of moderators who keep Facebook safe, the sanctity of for-profit wedding mills, and the state of the debate over Social Security. Read more

Get well, Kevin Drum

Last updated on: October 26, 2014 at 12:46 pm By Fred Clark

Back when he was still Calpundit, Kevin Drum helped keep the left- and right-wing blog worlds talking to one another by introducing us all to the trans-partisan goodness of Friday Cat Blogging. This week, Kevin introduced a new variation, which I don't like at all: "Friday Cancer Blogging." Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: October 16, 2014 at 1:39 pm By Fred Clark

"Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest." Read more