This branding usage to define tribal status is most clearly seen in the way the term is used in those boilerplate descriptors that summarize public figures. Steve Chalke is "a prominent but controversial British Christian leader." Bill Gothard is "Basic Seminar speaker and home-schooling advocate." Read more
"These are people who have loved each other and been committed to each other for years. I've got a ceremony I'm doing for a couple that's been together longer than I've been married to my wife — 43 years. But they have never been able to live openly as married people. This is historic because now they are open. They are married. They're not just together, they're married." Read more
"You are gods," Jehovah tells them. Yep. "You are gods." And so, for God's sake, act like it: "Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Read more
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Read more
Some weekend links: "And then the woman let out a cry. I cannot describe it." ... Franklin Graham redefines "biblical truths." ... Liars for Jesus (contraception, Planned Parenthood, etc. -- the usual) ... An energy audit by the Godfather of Soul. ... The whitest company in America. Read more
Bryan Fischer is a member in good standing of the white evangelical tribe. The tribal gatekeepers have rarely seen fit to criticize Fischer, let alone to pronounce his banishment. He can bear false witness day after day, saying the most horrible slurs about gay people, women, immigrants, black people, Latinos, feminists, scientists and college graduates, and yet he will never be "Farewell"-ed the way people like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren or even for goodness' sake Rachel Held Evans have been. Read more
"The Leftovers" looks interesting. Whether or not it turns out to be any good, it's an HBO show, so it's going to generate some buzz. People will be talking about it -- and talking about the questions it raises -- all through July, August and September. What would that be like? What would you do? How would you react? What would happen to ...? Read more
"Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties, and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day. I do not mention this as showing, in my estimation, his anti-Christian character, so much as the bare fact of being a slaveholder, and not a hundredth part so much as trying to kidnap this woman; but, in the minds of the community, it will weigh infinitely more." Read more
NielsenTopTen's infographic "Just How Long Is a TV Marathon?" has been getting plenty of well-deserved attention and included many worthy shows. But there were some unfortunate omissions, some that were more regrettable, and a few that were downright unforgivable. In an effort to amend that, I offer the following Read more
It's an odd form of consolation: "Perhaps the Lord spared him from the bombing" by killing him with an exotic virus first. Or perhaps the Lord spared him from the virus by killing him with the bomb first. This makes sense to Buck and Tsion and the authors because it's the same logic at work in their death-denying belief in "the Rapture." Read more
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