Pope Francis says maybe to civil unions

Last updated on: March 6, 2014 at 5:57 pm By Fred Clark

Roman Catholic Church is not lobbying to make it illegal under secular law for anyone to obtain a civil divorce. Nor is it attempting to prevent divorced people from access to legal, civil remarriage. Divorce and remarriage are, in the eyes of the Catholic church, sins. But the church acknowledges that they are also a legal right that it would be unjust and immoral (i.e., sinful) to deny others. There's no reason -- no Catholic reason -- that Pope Francis and his church could not take the same approach to same-sex marriage. Read more

Most evangelical college grads have a story like this one

Last updated on: March 6, 2014 at 6:34 pm By Fred Clark

Most evangelical college graduates have a story like the one Dudley tells. They can relate to the trajectory he relates there -- the shock of new ideas as an underclassman and then, later, the candid conversations during office visits in which a professor explains what is and is not allowed to be said and how it differs from what is and is not true. Read more

Bible secrets concealed: How lying is mandatory for white evangelical institutions (part 2)

Last updated on: August 25, 2017 at 2:21 pm By Fred Clark

Duplicity is built into the structure of evangelical institutions -- colleges, seminaries, publishing houses, magazines. There is a gap -- a chasm -- between what they know to be true and what they are expected or required to pretend to believe. There is a great deal that they know to be true but fearfully avoid talking about. Read more

NRA: Feathering the throttle

Last updated on: March 5, 2014 at 2:41 am By Fred Clark

As Chapter 11 ends, readers are treated to two pages of driving instructions followed by a full page of driving directions. We also encounter two unprecedented anomalies: Buck Williams expresses his gratitude, and Jerry Jenkins does a (very) little bit of research. Read more

Misstatements of faith: How lying is mandatory for white evangelical institutions (part 1)

Last updated on: August 25, 2017 at 2:21 pm By Fred Clark

You can spend thousands of dollars to study biology or biblical studies at Bryan College. They will take your money. But the professors there are not permitted to teach you either biology or biblical studies, so that money will not be well spent. Read more

There’s buzzing, there’s static, someone’s on the line

Last updated on: March 4, 2014 at 12:49 am By Fred Clark

A good source for tracking events in Ukraine. Sousveillance and small-town Texas police. Michael Walzer on the hatred of imaginary Jews. Flipping the script on "religious liberty" as religious privilege. "Do not be alarmed if your Bird Bible has a faint egg smell." My favorite moment from the Academy Awards. Read more

Learn these 4 warning signs to avoid money-losing scams

Last updated on: March 3, 2014 at 5:32 pm By Fred Clark

"Four Texas lawmakers, including two now running for statewide office, bought into a fledgling technology company that aimed to reap huge dividends with trades in electricity markets. Instead, the lawmakers said in a lawsuit, they were scammed by a chiseler who once claimed to have found Noah’s Ark." Read more

A wolf in wolf’s clothing: Reviving the ‘religious liberty’ to hang Quakers in Boston Common

Last updated on: March 3, 2014 at 11:13 am By Fred Clark

The attempt to redefine "religious liberty" as a license to discriminate isn't really a "wolf in sheep's clothing that masks discrimination under a veneer of piety." It's a wolf in wolf's clothing, with a veneer of piety that has never fooled anyone. It is the same impious impulse that led good Christian people to hang Mary Dyer on the Boston Common. Read more

Time travelers: Don’t kill Hitler — kidnap him

Last updated on: March 2, 2014 at 3:21 pm By Fred Clark

In The Guardian, Dean Burnett writes, “Time travelers: Please don’t kill Hitler.” The dek of Burnett’s article summarizes where he’s going with this: “In almost any science-fiction scenario involving time-travel, the default action is to kill Hitler. As terrible a human being as he was, there are many reasons why this probably isn’t a good idea.” I agree, but not for any of the reasons Burnett suggests. If I were a time traveler, I wouldn’t kill Hitler. I would kidnap... Read more

Scenes from the Class War

Last updated on: March 1, 2014 at 2:30 pm By Fred Clark

"Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." Read more

What did Esther risk by approaching the king without being summoned?