OK, so, you’ve probably noticed a slightly different look here. Patheos is tweaking some stuff sitewide, most of which doesn’t affect this blog — except, we hope, to make it easier to find from the front pages of Patheos. But as you can see, there’ve been some tweaks here as well. This is still a work in progress, so please let me know of any new bugs, glitches, typos, dead links, omissions, atrocities, etc., and we’ll try to get those... Read more
The “welfare reform” passed during the Clinton administration was based on the idea that welfare recipients would be required to work. Welfare reform was billed as the end of the free ride for all those lazy moms sitting at home doing nothing except raising their kids and cashing their AFDC checks. The new law replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with TANF — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. And TANF meant those lazy moms were going to... Read more
RJS at Jesus Creed reports on the recent Theology of Celebration Workshop hosted by the Biologos Foundation, reported on by Christianity Today as a gathering of “evangelical evolutionists.” As RJS notes, that’s an unsatisfying label, but I suppose it works as a reminder that there are, in fact, evangelical theologians who do not deny evolution. RJS writes: [CT’s Tim] Stafford suggests that the most sobering point in the meeting was the report by David Kinnaman of Barna Research that more... Read more
1. Just because someone runs into a burning building, risking his own life to save others, doesn’t mean that this person is necessarily also qualified to serve as mayor, governor, senator or president. After all, firefighters do this for a living and not every firefighter is someone who would necessarily also possess the skills and abilities that would make them an effective mayor, governor, senator or president some day. 2. Having said that, personal heroism speaks to character, and character... Read more
It’s Friday the 13th and, somewhere in America, he will return. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and... Read more
‘Cause part of me knows what you’re thinking … “Eye,” Smashing Pumpkins “Eyé Adabå,” Asa “Eye in the Sky,” Jonatha Brooke “Eye Know,” De La Soul “Eye Know (Know It All mix),” De La Soul “Eye of the Hurricane,” The Alarm “Eye of the Storm,” Mark Heard “Eye of the Tiger,” Josh Joplin “Eye on Springfield,” Kent Brockman “Eyeball Kid,” Tom Waits “Eyes on Fire,” Blue Foundation “Eyes on the Prize,” M. Ward “Eyes Wide Open,” Adam Again It seems... Read more
In a recent guest-post at Jon Acuff’s Stuff Christians Like blog, Paul Angone wrote about the evangelical subculture’s enthusiasm for “Claiming Musicians as One of Us.” If you’ve ever been a part of this subculture, then you know exactly what Angone is talking about. If not, just think of the fervent evangelical fandom that’s sprung up around Tim Tebow and imagine he were a musician instead of a football player. (Think of it this way, Tim Tebow : football ::... Read more
From John Calvin, to Marilynne Robinson, to Martin Marty, to here, this is the theologian and reformer on what we owe to all the poor: The Lord commands us to “do good to all men,” universally, a great part of whom, estimated according to their own merits, are very undeserving; but here the Scripture assists us with an excellent rule, when it inculcates that we must not regard the intrinsic merit of men, but must consider the images of God... Read more
“Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd …” “He wants a carton of Merits and some Jiffy Pop, and he doesn’t want to have to put his shirt on to get them. You know why? Because this is America.” “For all the talk about McCarthyism in politics, we don’t usually come across literal examples.” “What’s going on here is lying. It’s lying about fellow human beings. And it’s lying to oneself.” “There is no... Read more
Charles Colson, Dr. James C. Dobson and now Rick Warren have warned us that a sneaky conspiracy of dangerous liberals are threatening “freedom of religion” by calling it, instead, “freedom of worship.” These devious liberals are so sneaky about this that most of the time they say “freedom of religion,” but they also occasionally mix in that terrifying, anti-Christian, un-American phrase “freedom of worship.” And that can only mean that they want to abolish the freedom of religion. Obviously. President... Read more
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