Emily Graslie is cheerful even when she's calling out Internet sexism. Child marriage and Vision Forum. Study finds "pro-life" states are not good places to raise children. Molly Worthen on "the anti-intellectual cult of the 'Christian worldview.'" Al Mohler admits that he's not inerrant when it comes to evaluating musical forms he's not familiar with. Read more
The creepiest thing about this whole ill-conceived comedy-routine-in-lieu-of-prayer is that it never occurred to Mike Huckabee or to anyone in his audience that if you've got God on the telephone, maybe you should ask some questions. Read more
American evangelicals tend to like the idea of "biblical archaeology," seeing the discovery of new artifacts in the lands of the Bible as evidence confirming the truth of their scriptures. But these evangelicals do not like biblical archaeology when it finds things like a 10,000-year-old house in Eshtaol, because many American evangelicals have got it fixed in their heads that the Bible must be read in such a way that it teaches that nothing is 10,000 years old. This house is 3,000 years older than their universe. Yet there it is. Read more
White theologians note that rap music is not white and conclude it is therefore irredeemable. For Santorum to succeed as a movie mogul, he needs to go back to being a tribalistic culture-warrior. Should your boss get a say in when and whether you have children? An evangelical Fred Armisen. The ethical dilemma of biblical studies PhDs and journalism majors. "What will evangelicals do" about David Barton's disgrace? Nothing. And why what Mark Driscoll chose to plagiarize is more troubling than the plagiarism itself. Read more
My illustration, usually so successful at debunking Ouija boards, seemed to have resulted instead in a rebunking. The lesson there, I suppose, is that there are many different kinds of bunk, and we have to deal with them one at a time. Read more
"Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." Read more
Their own awesomeness is a topic the authors address with relentless relish. Everything else in the document is merely a foil for this central subject. The threat of The Gay is grave, ominous and potentially world-altering, they warn, repeatedly, before reassuring us that their heroic resolve and moral superiority will save the day. Even the passages in which they luxuriate in their own massive humility are saturated with this swaggering self-regard. Read more
The charge that Mark Driscoll plagiarized a big chunk of Peter Jones' "Pagan Lies, Gospel Truth: Can You Tell the Difference?" in his own latest book seems both well-substantiated and quite serious. But just as serious is this: The passage in question from Jones' book is awful. It's not worth reading, let alone plagiarizing. Read more
"It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn’t. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog." Read more
"Almost like a religion" is exactly right. And the specific religion which it is almost like is Christianity. This almost-religion, this pseudo-Christianity, has become so popular and so successful that it is outselling the authentic original. Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In