"If you tithe for 90 days and God does not prove Himself faithful, we'll refund 100% of your tithe," this church promises. But the registration form outlining the terms of this guarantee leaves too many terms undefined. Read more
"If you tithe for 90 days and God does not prove Himself faithful, we'll refund 100% of your tithe," this church promises. But the registration form outlining the terms of this guarantee leaves too many terms undefined. Read more
This isn't a dispute about the meaning of facts, but rather a dispute about whether or not there can be any such thing as facts. The sort of Christian fundamentalist most likely to embrace young-Earth creationism is also likely to be the sort of person who rails against "post-modernism" and who insists on the essential importance of "absolute truth." Yet scratch the surface of any young-Earth creationist and you'll find an epistemology more radically skeptical than anything Hume or any of the French deconstructionists ever imagined. Far from the defenders of "absolute truth" they claim to be, young-Earth creationists actually embrace a philosophy that says nothing can be known about the world around us. Read more
"Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers." "That door is closed," but "Our church doors should always be open." More news from the states of dismay. Religious Left Law offers a counterpoint to my take on the parsonage exemption. "We" need to bring the troops home, but "we" don't want to become the Rutherford B. Hayes of Afghanistan. The coolest bar from 1908. Here's the Thanksgiving Proclamation that Christianist demagogues will soon be pretending never existed. Read more
I have enormous respect and affection for Ron Sider, so much so that my regard for him is able to withstand even something like his dismaying endorsement of the overwrought, corrupt and corrupting "Manhattan Declaration." In partial defense of Ron, though, we should note that his signature and support were secured under false pretenses. It seems he was lied to. Read more
Listing all the things one is grateful for is one of my least favorite Thanksgiving traditions (right up there with pretending that pumpkin pie is a viable alternative to apple). So here are a few bloggy traditions for the holiday instead. Read more
The idea here is to harness the labor-saving logic employed by computer programmers to enable us to be more spiritually efficient. “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” the scripture says, but think of how much more it might availeth if we ensure that we’re making the most effective use of our prayer time. Prayer macros can make us more efficient and therefore more productive by helping us to avoid “vain repetition,” just like Jesus said. Read more
The two men live and work about 100 miles apart in Kentucky, but when it comes to young-Earth creationism, there's no space between them at all. It's odd that science-aversion, reality-denial and wacky exegesis makes Ken Ham a comic figure, while the very same science-aversion, reality-denial and wacky exegesis is hailed as evidence of Al Mohler's pious devotion to the "authority of the scriptures." Read more
Pope Francis releases an "apostolic exhortation" that reads like an #Occupy manifesto. If corporations are ruled to be religious persons, will we need to send missionaries to convert them? Truth Wins Out wins out in dialogue with Salvation Army. A remarkable conversation between two remarkable women. The filibuster seems to have been used differently when the president isn't white. "Scottsboro, too, is worth its song." Read more
It’s one thing to ask someone to prepare you a chicken sandwich as an expression of your dislike for gay civil rights. It’s something else entirely to ask people to prepare and deliver you a pizza as an expression of your contempt for the people who prepare and deliver your pizza. Read more
According to the National Center for Reason and Justice, Francis Keller has been released from a Texas prison. Since 1993, Keller has been serving a 48-year sentence for a crime that she did not commit. Worse than that, she has spent the past 20 years in prison for a crime that never happened. Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In