Last Tuesday night, young-Earth creationist Ken Ham hosted a "debate" of sorts with popular science advocate Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Then my power went out. Here, belatedly, is a round-up of some of the terrific commentary, reactions and responses to that event. Read more
Langston Hughes and the altar call; infernal Legos; the revolution will not be televised; a half-century celebration of William F. Buckley being massively wrong about things; and a plea to blend poverty for good. Read more
This short speech by Dublin's pre-eminent drag queen isn't about America or the church or the church in America. And yet it is. And so I think it's something that every pastor in every church in America ought to see. I think maybe it's actually something that every pastor in every church in America needs to see. Read more
The idea of LIHEAP -- helping people when they need help -- goes against the increasingly popular crabs-in-a-bucket ethos of Randian resentment. If I have to pay 100 percent of my heating bill, why should they get any help paying theirs? So what if that means poor families shiver through the winter? Read more
"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." Read more
Skype exorcisms, Kinerisms, enormous (in)significance, money well spent, why TV never graduates, and a second common thread linking Bob Jones University, Bill Gothard and the white supremacists of the National Alliance. Read more
"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." Read more
Using a generator is like heating your house with a lawnmower, except a lawnmower isn't quite as loud. Or as dirty. Or as much of a gas-guzzler. And a lawnmower is easier to start. But other than that, it's like heating your house with a lawnmower. Read more
Here's hoping that PECO is under-promising and over-delivering and not the other way around. Plus I revisit a terrific post from Richard Beck from a year ago, just so I can say, "Yes, this. Amen" all over again. Read more
The headline-grabbing aspect of this story comes due to the presence of domesticated camels in lots of biblical stories -- stories that are set long before "the last third of the 10th century BCE." Evidence that there were no such camels in Israel at that time, Tel Aviv University says, is "is direct proof that the [Biblical] text was compiled well after the events it describes." So that's big news -- at least, it's news for anyone who's never read the Bible before, I guess. Read more
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