Congressman votes to drug-screen welfare recipients, then gets busted for cocaine. Fix your collar, Justin Welby. "Psychic's" prediction of her death at age 88 was a 11 years off. What if graduate programs advertised honestly? High school principal orders students to use racial slur. "No talk of compassion impresses me when the tone of all reference to those who are struggling is hostile and judgmental." Are you being persecuted? Read more
Charles Krauthammer, April 22, 2003: "Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We’ve had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven’t found any, we will have a credibility problem." As of today, it has been five months 23 times over. Read more
Accommodationists tend to see a tension between the two clauses of the First Amendment. Where I see the two clauses as simply two sides of the same Caesar's coin, they view the clauses as almost opposites. The protectionist view ... goes further even than the accommodationist approach. They view the two clauses as not merely in "tension," but at war. Read more
In every iteration, the conflict is the same. On the one side are those who declare that they stand for the absolute truth of the inerrant scripture. And on the other side are those who say that such an appeal to scripture can never be contrary to the "twofold love of God and our neighbor." Read more
Paprocki's experiment was not a test of the relative power of Christ and the church vs. Satan. His experiment, rather, was a test of the relative spiritual and moral authority of Archbishop Thomas Paprocki as opposed to the spiritual and moral authority of the Catholic laypeople of Illinois. Read more
There are no victims of Satanic baby-killers, but there are many, many victims of those who say they're fighting against Satanic baby-killers. Mourn with those who mourn. "Death panel" inventor's future isn't pretty. Obama recites Constitution, leaves out the phrase "Under God." Holy relics are creepy. Evangelism is hospitality. Tom Brower is a Democratic state representative, but his seething resentment of the poor matches that of any tea partier. Read more
If I could just get over my own prejudices, I’d realize that most evangelical churches would welcome me as a full and equal member, without suspicion or hostility or condemnation due to my belief in evolution and my support for legal abortion and equal rights for GLBT people. “You’re pro-choice? No problem,” they would say. “We’re not the hyper-politicized caricatures the media makes us out to be, you know! Would you like to lead one of our small-group Bible studies?” Read more
Religious persecution is not a function of the religious character of the majority nor a function of the religious character of the minority. The only variable that matters is whether or not there is a legal framework guaranteeing the rights, freedoms and safety of minorities. Read more
RIght-wingers "Second American Revolution" draws crowd of dozens. The underwater villages of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Another view on the ugly game of "biblical grounds for divorce." If you don't like Bob Dylan's new video, you can always change the channel. Two definitions of "evangelical." The perils of certainty. Read more
Anti-Jubilee preacher Dave Ramsey just helped Tom Corley's list of "20 Things the Rich Do Every Day" to go viral on the Internet. Corley might as well have called this list: "A Rich Guy Finds 20 Different Ways to Accuse the Poor of Being Lazy." In the spirit of that nasty piece of kick-'em-while-they're-down trash, here are "8 More Things the Rich Do Every Day." Read more
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