Cruciform dildo-swords decorate church lawn in Tennessee

Last updated on: August 14, 2012 at 7:12 pm By Fred Clark

Those are not crosses on the lawn of Grace Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The man in this photo, Mack Richards, explained that to reporter Scott Broden of The Tennessean. Richards, photographed here by the newspaper’s John A. Gillis, explained that these giant cruciform objects on his church’s lawn are actually anti-crosses. “It was more or less to make a statement to the Muslims about how we felt about our religion, our Christianity,” said Mack Richards, a Middle Tennessee Baptist... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 9:09 pm By Fred Clark

Wells Tower: “Desperately Seeking Mitt” On some level, he must know that the world’s more complex than this, and that these past three decades have been very good to people like him and Harold but not so good for everybody else. It’s a big, ugly truth to have to willfully ignore. Not that it’s his fault. Romney’s presidential bid would combust the instant he stopped talking about America as though it is a pretty hologram in a block of cut... Read more

Look at those cavemen go

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 10:07 pm By Fred Clark

A week ago, I obsessively followed NASA’s successful landing of the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, but failed to write anything about it here because I couldn’t think of anything to say that was any more insightful or articulate than “whoa” and “wow” and “cool.” After thinking about this for the past week, I’d like to say this: Whoa. Wow. Cool. Ed Yong has an excellent collection of Curiosity links. I particularly like Ross Andersen’s collection of tweets... Read more

Scenes from the class war

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 8:12 pm By Fred Clark

“What my dad didn’t tell us was that those rich people who lived in those nice houses were the real hard workers in the world (unlike himself and his brothers) and if we worked as hard as those wealthy folks we could be just like them and live in a nice house, and not a $35 a month apartment, and we could drive a big car that we actually owned and maybe even someday have a color TV.” “Hacks like... Read more

November 23, 1963

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 4:04 pm By Fred Clark

(This is a follow-up to this. Neil Gaiman did it first and did it better, but if we let that stop us, we’d never write anything.) She heard the news on the radio the night before, and wept. In the morning she rushed out to the street to buy the paper. “Kennedy Assassinated” the headline read. And back in her London apartment, she wept again. The handsome young American leader had always reminded her, somehow, of her own brother. Another... Read more

The Committee will see you now

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 2:24 pm By Fred Clark

This photograph of Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr and Henry Pitney Van Dusen (which I’ve seen credited to Gjon Mili of Time) seemed irresistible to me. Think you can do better. Well, I think you can. I’m sure of it. So here’s the template, if you’re tempted. Read more

Redeeming Susan Pevensie

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm By Fred Clark

The first book I ever read on my own — the first book-book, one with more words than pictures — was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Most of my memories from that age are a blurry mess, but I still recall this vividly. I cried when I reached the end. The story was over and I did not want it to be over. I did not want to leave that story or its world or the people in... Read more

Sex and theology

Last updated on: August 12, 2012 at 4:29 pm By Fred Clark

One of the massive and ongoing projects in Christian theology is the filtering out of all the Neo-Platonism we’ve been ingesting ever since St. Augustine spiked the punch bowl with that stuff. Intrepid blogger Dianna Anderson tackles a smaller, but similar project — trying to explain to American evangelicals that C.S. Lewis’ pervasive Platonism isn’t from the Bible. (As Lewis’ own character, Prof. Digory Kirke, put it: “It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: August 8, 2012 at 7:20 pm By Fred Clark

Mark 12:41-44 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but... Read more

Paul Ryan vs. the Nuns: Round 2

Last updated on: August 11, 2012 at 11:34 pm By Fred Clark

Fuel up the bus, it’s time for the nuns to hit the road again. This summer’s Nuns on the Bus tour, you may recall, focused on the good sisters’ moral opposition to the House Republican budget, usually referred to as the Ryan Budget, after House Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, its author. Chris Lisee reported for Religion News Service at the conclusion of the nuns’ successful tour: A group of Catholic nuns ended its nine-state bus tour here Monday (July... Read more

What does 1 John say the world and its desires are doing?