We can all get along. We can all agree that one side of this issue involves a realistic assessment of the evidence and the other side involves a delusional fantasy based on some perverse need to assert the absolute worst about others. Maybe we can't agree on which side is which, but at least we can agree that this is the shape of the disagreement. Read more
It turns out that the litigious old bastard has at least one useful social purpose. The unimpeded, undiminished work of his infamously evil anti-gay "ministry" emphatically disproves every Scary Story promoted by anti-gay religious groups who claim that recognizing marriage equality or including sexual orientation in existing hate-crime or anti-discrimination legislation will lead to Christian ministers being thrown in jail for saying they believe homosexuality is a sin. Read more
Toward the end of the book of Job, the character of God starts off listing all the incredible things he's created as a way of bolstering his authority and trustworthiness. But then it starts to get away from him a bit. God starts grinning goofily at the thought of all these amazing creatures and the argument morphs into more of a reverie about just how freakin' cool all this stuff he created has turned out to be. It's like part-way through this theological discourse, the character of God wanders off and just starts surfing the Web, laughing with delight at animal videos on YouTube. Read more
Here & Now is a “daily news magazine” on public radio produced by WBUR in Boston. It’s name has never been more appropriate than today, as the program reported live from a city in turmoil. Their compelling reporting today doesn't help to make sense of any of this, but perhaps it helps us to understand the kind of senselessness at the heart of this story. Read more
Morgan Guyton wonders "How did Jesus come to love guns and hate sex?"; Gabby Giffords puts the U.S. Senate to shame; Sarah Posner is weary of Sen. Pryor's sanctimonious gun-worship; William D. Lindsey talks about rhetoric intended to stop conversation, rather than to start it; and Elizabeth Kaeton explains the facts of life (again) to those who continue to lie about Plan B. Read more
It's the Friday music game -- I'll show you mine and you show me yours. This week, more songs with names in the title and this time it's all about Johnny. (Wait, like, who's Johnny? Answer me, Debbie, who's Johnny?) Read more
Vermont adopted civil unions and the sky did not fall. Over the following decade other states followed suit and none of the monstrous evils that the fraudsters insisted would happen have come to pass. And on a more intimate, more personal level, more and more of the people in that potential market for these scary stories have gotten to know gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people — gotten to know them as people rather than as some amorphous Other — and so have come to realize that they’re not the monsters the scary stories make them out to be. Read more
His first reaction to reading Nash's explanation of why so many young people no longer feel welcome in the church was to pick up the telephone and personally inform a young person that she was no longer welcome in the church. Faced with Nash's eloquent complaint that young people were figuratively being forced out of the church, his first reaction was to actually force a young person out of the church. Read more
Karl Barth and Miroslav Volf on listening and seeing. They're lookin' down kinda puzzled, pokin' that dog with a stick. Read more
Some more sad news in an already sad week: the passing of three remarkable people. Jonathan Winters was a hilarious, confounding comic genius. Singer George Beverly Shea bows with humble adoration. And Ragamuffin writer Brennan Manning's influence lives on in his grace-full readers. Read more
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