When fantasy role-playing replaces faith you still need a decent DM

Last updated on: February 9, 2015 at 12:54 pm By Fred Clark

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

The Bible wasn’t written to provide source material for inspirational posters

Last updated on: February 8, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Fred Clark

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

Sunday WTF?

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 2:06 am By Fred Clark

"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

Left Behind Classic Fridays, No. 19: ‘Email MacGyver’

Last updated on: February 5, 2015 at 7:06 pm By Fred Clark

A more observant passenger on Rayford Steele's plane might've noticed that no one with alcohol in their system was among the disappeared. "That explains it! It explains why all the children were taken! It's the alcohol, the alcohol will protect you!" Then you can imagine everybody clamoring for a drink to ensure their safety before the next wave of abductions hits. Read more

Swearing on a stack of Bibles: Pennsylvania’s stupid, unconstitutional law

Last updated on: February 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm By Fred Clark

Pennsylvania's law requiring witnesses to swear on the Christian Bible is blatantly unconstitutional -- a clear violation of the First Amendment. But just as importantly, this law is simply stupid. Asking Muslims or Jews or atheists to swear on the Christian Bible undermines the whole intent of such rituals, which is to solemnize the oath by referencing something the witnesses themselves regard with reverence. Read more

She’s working double shifts to keep us fed

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:39 pm By Fred Clark

Vatican Guy No. 1: "How should we advertise our all-male conference on women?" Vatican Guy No. 2: "How about with a sculpture of a nude headless woman whose breasts and genitals are bound with golden rope?" VG No. 1: "Perfect." (Plus some other Wednesday evening linkage.) Read more

Cops behaving badly (2.4)

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 12:20 pm By Fred Clark

The NYPD and police from Missouri are always making news, but not in a good way. Lutheran clergy shame the North Miami Beach PD's teach-yourself-racism program. And lots of bad apples do a whole bunch of spoiling. Read more

You’ll need a written excuse from your vet

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 7:02 am By Fred Clark

Newton's Third Law of Sanctimony; UPS wants to charge extra for taunting you with stickers instead of packages; Phil Plait has both enormous patience and no patience for anti-vaxxers; and there's probably no St. John's Wort in your St. John's Wort -- probably no wort of any kind. Read more

Republicans divided on germ theory of disease and the monstrous legacy of Dr. Jonas Salk

Last updated on: February 3, 2015 at 8:17 pm By Fred Clark

President Obama urged parents to vaccinate their children. As a result, for the past two days we've seen a steady parade of ambitious Republican officials denouncing the evils of vaccination and attacking the germ theory of disease, followed by another group of Republican officials trying to control the damage by arguing that #NotALLRepublicans think that preventing disease is a Bad Thing. Read more

NRA: Papa don’t preach

Last updated on: February 3, 2015 at 3:08 pm By Fred Clark

Regardless of what one thinks about abortion, this scene doesn't contribute to the conversation about it in any constructive way. It's an exercise in tribal affiliation rather than an argument designed or intended to persuade. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are writing here for an audience they assume already is -- and must be -- anti-abortion. Those readers do not need to be convinced that abortion is immoral, and LaHaye and Jenkins aren't trying to convince them of that here. Their point, rather, is to convince those readers that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins share their opposition to abortion. The point is to convince readers that LaHaye and Jenkins are unassailably part of the anti-abortion tribe. Read more

In Revelation, what do the four living creatures say day and night without ceasing?