We tell those kids to read the Bible and a few of them actually do. And then they have questions. They notice the differences among the Gospel accounts and they ask about those. Some of the brighter and more ambitious Bible readers will even ask about some of the more esoteric bits gleaned from the not-always-compatible stories in the histories of the Hebrew scriptures. And any kid who reads 1 Chronicles on her own deserves a serious, honest response. Read more
The zombie lie that budgets could be balanced if only we stopped giving away such generous foreign humanitarian aid is actually two lies combined. Read more
"How has the whole Church found itself believing something about slavery which is so at odds with the Bible?" prominent British evangelical Steve Chalke asks. It's an interesting question. Christians today unanimously condemn slavery as a grave moral evil. The Bible condones it. Christians who insist we must never be "at odds with the Bible" are, in fact, at odds with the Bible -- at least according to their own understanding of what that means. Read more
The Republican Party, Sam Tanenhaus writes, "is and will continue to be the party of white people." But Republicans aren't sitting back and accepting this fate. They're boldly continuing their winsome outreach efforts to attract a more diverse array of voters -- women, blacks, Latinos, LGBT citizens, college students, disaster victims and more. Read more
Sam Baker starts us off with a prayer, plus some Monday morning links, including: the Torah and Marvel Comics; snakes, Bibles and guns; anti-immigration policies; arresting children; James Baldwin; a traffic jam in Italy; Jesus and Zoloft; and telling people exactly where you'd like them to put that Gospel tract. Read more
The accounts of creation seemed, for them, to have nothing to say about divine intent or divine affection, but only about divine technique. The story of Noah seemed to be nothing more than a complicated word problem involving the measuring of livestock capacity in cubits. Read more
Fred Kaplan says Republican senators can no longer be trusted on national security; Margot Starbuck says Christians should rejoice with those who rejoice; the blogger formerly known as the Real Live Preacher tells us about "A Thing That Happened;" Dianna Anderson says sexual ethics must start with consent; and Ed Kilgore muses on Protestants who reach Catholic conclusions while rejecting Catholic reasoning. Read more
This week we had a large meteor ripping across the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, which is just exactly the sort of spectacular event that gets people talking about the End of the World. But then people don't really need anything so spectacular to get them talking about the End of the World -- a topic that seems to obsess millions of people even on days when giant rocks aren't disintegrating in our atmosphere. Read more
Zephaniah 3:14-20: "I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth." Read more
Mary Bird rejects the explicit biblical texts condoning slavery, saying, "I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow." Clearly she's been reading too much Rob Bell or something and she's no longer a real, true evangelical Christian. Read more
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