Since it's that time of year -- and since talking/arguing about movies is always fun -- here are two lists of my Christmas movie recommendations. The first list is more on the sappy/sentimental side, while the 10 films in the second list may provide a palate-cleansing tonic for all that sugary snow. Read more
To believe that which has been disproved is always wrong. To believe that which cannot be proved could be wrong, but it also could be right. The distinction is not subtle, and it's rather important. Read more
"Anger is not the opposite of love. It is better understood as a feeling-signal that all is not well in our relation to other persons or groups or to the world around us. Anger is a mode of connectedness to others and it is always a vivid form of caring." Read more
Bill O'Reilly and Mat Staver are both trying to justify Christian privilege. They want the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to apply to Christianity, and exclusively to Christianity (and maybe Jews, too, if they behave). And they want the no establishment clause of the First Amendment to apply to every religion except for Christianity. Read more
Monday morning links, including: the Velveteen Rabbi on Jacob and Esau; Ben Emerson on the whole dang book of Judges; Sarah Moon on church building projects; brownie points for decency; the three-fifths compromise on women in the church; Sarah Bessey on advent; "Give to those who ask;" and James Dobson, novelist. Read more
"We support biblical families," Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy says of his fast-food corporation. So let's take a look at some of those biblical families. Today's entry: Dad's concubines. Read more
That's not the whole answer, or the only answer, or the best answer, or the most comprehensive answer. It is certainly the wrong answer for the student, for the teacher, for the critic, for the audience, for the playwright, for the director, for the publicist and for the rest of the cast. But it is a necessary answer for the actor whose role it is to be the nurse. Read more
We have a say in this. We cannot consider the question "Does the Universe Have a Purpose?" without considering the sub-question "Do I Have a Purpose?" or even the sub-question to that, "Do I Want to Have a Purpose?" Answering "Yes" to that third question means answering "Yes" to the second. And that means -- even if only in a very tiny, tiny way -- answering "Yes" to the first. Read more
Psalm 14: "You would confound the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge." Read more
"Bryan Stevenson expects anger because he wants to discuss the explosive rise in inmate populations, the disproportionate use of the death penalty against people of color and the use of life sentences against minors as part of a continuum running through the South’s ugly history of racial inequality, from slavery to Jim Crow to lynching." Read more
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