An apology, an amazing video from Todrick Hall, and some Saturday links, including: Heroic nurses, regressive theology, friendship permission slips, bad stock sermons, the Tone Police, "The Secret Teachings of All Ages," ukelele lizards and hot cocoa without quite so much child labor. Read more
The Chinese get more out of Ikea than we do. An ugly, ugly pattern repeats itself at another white evangelical institution. Instead of building the smart-grid that will allow our kids to have decentralized, renewable energy, we're building more pipelines to use up the last of the fossil fuels so out kids won't have any. These folks have hated executive orders for 151 years. "An arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of citizens." This is what it sounds like when doves cry in Tuareg. Read more
Evangelism is hospitality, and hospitality is always about the guest, not about me. This video is all about me -- all about us, our tribe, our team. Trash-talking the other "tribe" is not a demonstration of hospitality. Pretty much the opposite, actually. Read more
The era of Nic as Rayford begins. Rick Perlstein on the importance of "epistemological empathy." One glacier, one centimeter of water all over one planet. I wish Pennsylvania had a Music Love Army. Men relying on Uncle Sugar for penis pumps because they can't control their libido. Kazakhstan bans books, but won't say which ones. Read more
Helen Andelin says incompetence is a real turn-on. Young Life: Still awful. Would stricter voter ID laws have prevented Dinesh D'Souza from committing campaign fraud? A bad review. Sr. Lucia quotes Jesus and Peter Pumpkinhead. Oh, and also IHOP does not love some people -- a lot. RIP Pete Seeger. Read more
Texas Monthly describes Off the Kuff as "a fun read and a smart read and, increasingly, a gotta-read." And that's true even if you're not from Texas. Read more
They can't get rid of the whole Great Tribulation battle against the Antichrist, because that just sounds so cool. Sure, the Tribulation is seven years of wrath, death and suffering, and it's also a dispensationalist construct that's otherwise incompatible with the End Times framework promoted by the NAR. But if there's no Tribulation, then there's no Tribulation Force and no chance to fantasize about being a brave and heroic champion of that elite God squad. Read more
The second confusing thing about these categories of pre- and post-millennialism has to do with the awkward way those chronological prefixes are applied in those terms. The details of those differing chronologies aren't as important as the implications of them. That's the key thing: Premillennialism is pessimistic. Postmillennialism is optimistic. Read more
"Sometimes a lie can be so obvious that it's almost honest." One way to tell the powerful are worried they're losing control. Food pantries overwhelmed after food stamp cuts. Satanic Panic still goin' strong in Pennsyltucky. Chesterton's bogeymen and "abstinence-only" sex education. Read more
So what does it mean when, instead of praying for God to redeem and preserve the world, you devote your life to praying that God will conquer and destroy it. Well, the Trappists gave us Thomas Merton. IHOP gave us Tyler Deaton. Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In