This statute, written by Thomas Jefferson, was passed 226 years ago today by the Virginia General Assembly. Jefferson was rightly proud of that. The evangelical Christian voting bloc, influenced by lying con artists like David Barton, may cite the first line here as evidence that Jefferson believed in an Almighty God and creator. And influenced by folks like Francis Schaeffer and Charles Colson, the members of that voting bloc may further cite that first line in support of the notion... Read more

“Burma joy as freed prisoners head home“ When Ko Ko Gyi arrived at Rangoon airport the crowd had been waiting several hours and rushed to greet him. People almost jumped on him, shouting, cheering, thronging him, calling out his name. Ko Ko Gyi is one of the best known of the 88 generation of student leaders, along with Min Ko Naing, the most famous. … This latest prisoner release is much more significant than previous ones. Under the current government,... Read more

You don’t suppose there’s something in this fellow’s story, Caldicott, do you? After all, people don’t go about tying up nuns. Dan Heaton at Pop Matters reviews the new DVD release of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. This is a great old film, and one those who know me well know is one of my favorites because it’s a classic example of the Innocent Person Embroiled in an International Scheme — which is my favorite movie in all of its... Read more

So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field. — Genesis 2:19-20 I regularly visit Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog in part because... Read more

Before saying anything about the Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School vs. EEOC we first need to say something about the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran School itself. It’s a bad school. It’s a very bad school and no parent should consider sending their children there. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran School teaches children bad things. It teaches children wrong things and untrue things. It does not provide a decent eduction. It’s a bad school. I’m not referring here to... Read more

Tim LaHaye and his wife Beverly, founder of Ladies Against Women, announced yesterday that they are endorsing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination for president. Tim LaHaye has been an influential power-broker in the religious right and the Republican Party for the past 30 years — this despite the fact that he has also spent those past 30 years assuring us that Jesus was coming back any day now and that the signs and prophecies make it... Read more

Hurting people is wrong. Hurting people in the name of the church hurts the church. I don’t want that second point to detract from the priority of the first one, but it’s also important. I was reminded of the UCC’s banned-from-the-Super Bowl ad above when reading Timothy Kincaid’s response, at Box Turtle Bulletin, to “An Open Letter from Religious Leaders in the United States to All Americans.” That letter, of course, isn’t really to “All Americans” any more than it’s... Read more