"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," Bob Dylan said. And we also shouldn't need moral theologians with formal training to tell us that the leadership of our churches should consist of "individuals who are neither perpetrators nor enablers of abuse." But apparently we do. Read more
“One Million Moms” — the media watchdog arm of the right-wing Christianist American Family Association, whose name is inaccurate by several orders of magnitude — is upset with the latest ad from Guinness because it features the great old hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”: Guinness & Co. is currently airing a commercial for its beer with a popular gospel hymn as background music. The song “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” is played during the entire ad and even though there... Read more
I do not know much of anything about "the evolution and ecology of microbes and genomes," or much of anything about Dr. Jonathan Eisen, who specializes in that field. But Eisen seems to be a mensch. The UC Davis professor was recently invited to give a prestigious endowed lecture series and, as Upworthy would say, What He Did Next Will Surprise You. ... Read more
Some weekend links, including: preaching on the Declaration; weighing in on third-wayers; Richard Land remembers the proud day that William Lloyd Garrison founded the Southern Baptist Convention; plus Veronica Poppins, Atari Avengers, and something Beautiful. Read more
"Mary, called Magdalene ... and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources." Read more
Here's where we find out if the WordPress upgrade means the excerpt function is working again. Some links and observations for your Friday afternoon. Read more
Hey, so, Patheos is upgrading our WordPress and some tech stuff to improve load times, etc. That starts today at 4 p.m. EST and should be (fingers crossed) done by tomorrow at 11 a.m. In the meantime, I can’t post, schedule posts or log in to WordPress lest I derail and delay the process. Basically, this kind of situation: Disqus will still work though (for usual Disqus-equivalent meanings of the word “work”), so feel free to continue visiting and talking... Read more
I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. Now we have proof that it’s true: “Office Space helped rid the world of ‘flair.'” “About four years after Office Space came out, T.G.I. Fridays got rid of all that [button] flair, because people would come in and make cracks about it,” [Mike] Judge recently told Deadline. “One of my ADs asked once at the restaurant why their flair was missing and they said they removed it because of that movie Office... Read more
Roger Ebert’s movie glossary defines an Idiot Plot as “Any plot containing problems that would be solved instantly if all of the characters were not idiots.” Hemant Mehta eyes the trailer for Christian-brand comedy The Virgins and doubts that an Idiot Plot can be redeemed simply by attributing the characters’ idiocy to religious devotion. “I grow restless,” Ebert said, when the misunderstandings driving a plot “could be ended by words that the screenplay refuses to allow [the characters] to utter.” This was less of a pitfall... Read more
Those first two sentences cut to the heart of the matter: "Tears for the victims. Anger at the perpetrator." That provides the basis for a very simple test for whether we're opposing evil or abetting it. Who are we angry at? Who are we crying for? Read more
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