Whenever you question the “traditional morality” of any moral code that’s not aging well, you’ll be accused of lawless anarchy and antinomianism. “So you think anything goes” they say. They don’t mean it as a question, so they won’t wait for, or allow, an answer. And thus they’ll never understand the point. Read more
Happy Easter. Read more
Saturday, this Saturday, is all we’ve ever known. Yesterday was this same Saturday, and so was the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that. Why should we expect that tomorrow will be any different? Seriously, just look around. Does it look like the meek are inheriting the earth? Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled? Does it look like the merciful are being shown mercy? Read more
The frustrating thing here in Luke is that we're told Jesus had a longer explanation, and that he shared this with his disciples. "He interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures." Might have been nice if, you know, someone had written that down. Read more
Many Christians who revere Sallman's "Head of Christ" would balk at Blanchard's gay vision of the Passion. Contextual theology is fine for those folks as long as the context is white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. But reimagining Jesus as a powerful, privileged white guy, the way Sallman's beloved painting does, contradicts and distorts the story in the Gospels. Reimagining Jesus as a despised outcast, as Blanchard's paintings do, helps us grasp the core of that story. Read more
A simple rule for white men invited to speak at conferences or to join boards of directors. Bryan Fischer offers prayers and supplications to his god: the 1 percent. Why are contemporary Christian music lyrics so ... kinky? Choose your conspiracy theory carefully, you only get one. Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you ... Read more
Southern Baptist data maven Ed Stetzer says that "evangelicals have been relatively steady as a percent of the population over the last few years." Daniel Darling says this is evidence that young people are not leaving evangelicalism, but if that's true, then it means no one is joining evangelicalism either. That would mean that evangelicals have become really bad at evangelism. Read more
Folks like Daniel Darling see a conflict between "the world hates you" and "having the goodwill of all the people." A Southern Baptist is bound to find that confusing because Southern Baptist theology was invented to be otherworldly -- to accommodate and to bless injustice in this world. It is what Christianity looks like when Christians are trying to both: 1) Read and follow their Bibles, and 2) Own, buy, sell, steal from, beat, rape, scourge, torture and proselytize other human beings. Read more
When you're writing an adventure story in which the hero is fleeing from Country A to Country B, it shouldn't be too hard to keep track of which country is which. It should be even easier in a book like "Nicolae," in which the entire world has been simplified down to only two countries. But never underestimate the ability of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins to get something wrong. Read more
For "Bible prophecy scholars," a lunar eclipse is a sign of the End Times. But of course for "Bible prophecy scholars," everything is a sign of the End Times -- eclipses, earthquakes, floods, droughts, Wednesdays, dandelions, war in the Middle East, peace in the Middle East, Middle Eastern restaurants in the Midwest. ... Read more
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