Return of the Satanazis!

Last updated on: April 8, 2012 at 8:45 pm By Fred Clark

“Unspeakable horrors from outer space paralyze the living and resurrect the dead!” It’s … We start on the radio, with a Dobson ‘N’ Friends chat on the evils of evil evildoers. Wife-beating apologist James Dobson offers a sweeping, but still fairly generic, condemnation: If you scratch around anywhere near the Planned Parenthood message and the function of Planned Parenthood, you see wickedness; you see evil. And Kristin Hawkins chimes in with a full-gonzo conspiracy theory: Planned Parenthood’s plan for you:... Read more

It’s a fool who plays it cool

Last updated on: April 8, 2012 at 12:31 pm By Fred Clark

I love Wegman’s. Wegman’s selection and customer service are fantastic. We shop there whenever we can afford it. We hardly ever shop there. Right-wing “artist” Jon McNaughton paints Barack Obama as William Lloyd Garrison. New Hampshire’s House of Representatives is still too big. “Handmaids of the Lord” vs. “Saints of the Roundtable” “People hate those whom they fear, and they fear those whom they have wronged.” “John Derbyshire is a racist. Declaring such does not require an act of mind-reading,... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: March 31, 2012 at 5:58 pm By Fred Clark

Luke 24:9-10 And returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. Read more

And all the pieces matter

Last updated on: April 7, 2012 at 12:36 am By Fred Clark

“Here’s a seal helping a stranded turtle get in the water.” “This was the course of things, the women knew. They would see it through to the end.” “Were you there when they crucified the poor?” “Sometimes it causes me to tremble tremble tremble.” “What stands out in the Holy Week services is humility in the face of unreasoning authority. What stands out, ultimately, and whether you believe in the Resurrection or not, or think the whole thing is a... Read more

Richard Land still represents Southern Baptists on ‘ethics’

Last updated on: April 20, 2012 at 10:54 pm By Fred Clark

Q: Does spouting racist nonsense on your radio show disqualify you to be the chief “ethics” spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention? A: Apparently not. At Nashville Scene, Betsy Phillips asks “Is Richard Land on Some Kind of Mission to Turn People Away From the Baptist Church?“: The only people who use the term “racialist” are racists. If you’re reading material talking about “racialist” stuff, hanging out with people talking about “racialist” things, you should know that’s just a made-up... Read more

Holy Saturday

Last updated on: April 6, 2012 at 2:18 pm By Fred Clark

(Originally posted in 2010.) Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;? therefore, we are saved by faith.? Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. – Reinhold Niebuhr This is my favorite day in Holy Week, this Saturday, this unrestful Sabbath, my favorite day in the whole of the liturgical calendar.... Read more

Justice means sticking up for other people

Last updated on: April 6, 2012 at 11:15 am By Fred Clark

Just as it is encouraging to see the students at a Minnesota Catholic school demonstrating solidarity by sticking up for one another, so too it has been inspiring to see Catholic school administrators getting it right in Texas. Last month, via Charles Kuffner, I shared the story of Catholic schools defending Jewish and Muslim schools in the Texas Associations of Private and Parochial Schools. Kuffner revisits the story this week, saying, “I think we’ve found the problem at TAPPS.” He... Read more

Dry-Dust

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 11:44 pm By Fred Clark

Every now and then I seem to dream these dreams … “The Dry Bones Dance,” Mark Heard “Dry Land,” Roddy Frame “Dry Lightning,” Bruce Springsteen “Dry the Rain,” The Beta Band “The Dull Flame of Desire,” Bjork “Dum Da Dum Doi Doi,” Terry Taylor “Dumb,” Nirvana “Dumb Ol’ Girl,” Kathleen Wilhoite “Dunford’s Fancy,” The Waterboys “Dusk and Summer,” Dashboard Confessional “Dust …”, Elvis Costello “Dust 2 …,” Elvis Costello “Dust and Diesel,” Bruce Cockburn Read more

The Kids Are Alright

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 11:38 pm By Fred Clark

Jon Tevlin of the Star Tribune tells us about an attempt by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to rally young people around “traditional marriage” as a political cause. I’m not sure what the archdiocese expected to happen at this mandatory assembly for seniors at DeLaSalle high school, but I’m sure they didn’t expect anything as awesome as what did happen. “DeLaSalle kids have a few words with archdiocese at marriage talk,” Tevlin reports: “The first three-quarters of the... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 9:47 pm By Fred Clark

Walter Wink: “To Hell With Gays: Sex and the Bible“ (via) Imagine the difficulty that abolitionists faced in making their case in the mid-19th century. In the absence of proof-texts, they had to fall back on the tenor of scripture, the spirit of Jesus, and appeals to compassion and empathy. Amazingly, enough people understood their case that they were able to carry the day. Today almost no one still argues that slavery is justifiable because it is biblically sanctioned. Likewise,... Read more