Left Behind II: Tribulation Force; part 1. Two things must be said at the outset. 1. Left Behind II: Tribulation Force is a bad movie. 2. This movie is far better than the book. Both of those truths are demonstrated in the opening scenes of this film video. Director Bill Corcoran begins by slowly panning over a bulletin board covered in fliers pleading for information about missing people. Corcoran oddly emphasizes the text of these posters, rather than the faces... Read more
Josh Langhoff of Burnside Writers Collective picks the CCM Album of the Year for 2011: The Book of Mormon: I don’t want to oversell the spiritual import of a show that’s essentially one hilarious provocation after another. On the other hand, maybe that’s a clue to where more [contemporary Christian music] should aim. Little of the year’s CCM provoked anyone. … * * * * * * * * * Tony Jones reads Michael Mooney’s puff-piece on Southern Baptist mega-pastor... Read more
J.R. Daniel Kirk: “Christmas Contagion“ If an unclean object comes into contact with a clean object, the clean becomes unclean. Uncleanness is more powerful than the cleanness an object might carry around. Priests are holy and eminently clean. But they can’t go into the same room with a dead person: the unclean dead defiles the living clean. Jesus messed all this up. Jesus came and touched the unclean, declaring to them, “You are cleansed.” zunguzungu, “Grieving Mohamed Bouazizi“ Someone like... Read more
The Indianapolis Star reports, “New state bill could make it illegal to sing national anthem ‘inappropriately‘”: [State] Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has introduced a bill that would set specific “performance standards” for singing and playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities. The law also would cover private schools receiving state or local scholarship funds, including vouchers. Performers would have to sign a contract agreeing to follow the guidelines. Musicians — whether amateur or... Read more
At Religion Dispatches, Peter Larrman offers a good run-down of the “Top 2011 Religion Stories That Weren’t.” I want to draw your attention especially to No. 6: 6. Upside-Down Ideas about Religious Liberty The dramatic new push for religious liberty exemptions for faith-connected providers of taxpayer-supported health services underscores the radical way in which understandings of religious liberty have changed in recent years. It’s not that the push for exemptions hasn’t made the news; it’s that no one is writing... Read more
Isaiah 55:1-5 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I... Read more
Best wishes to you all for 2012. May grace, peace, joy, love, hope, healing and happy surprises be yours in the year ahead. And jobs all around for those who need them. I should probably say first that the kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t;... Read more
“I’m not technically rich, but I do have a lot of [stuff] that I don’t need and I refuse to share with others.” — Maria Bamford I can tell you precisely when it was that I learned the true meaning of wealth. It was 1:45 a.m. on Saturday, July 3, 1993. I was at Veterans Stadium, watching a ball game. The San Diego Padres were in town to play the Phillies on the last stop of their last East Coast... Read more
I’m not sure if this will work, but it might be fun to try. We’re going to tell a story. I’ll start, then we’ll take turns continuing from there in comments. Whoever goes next adds a sentence or two and together we’ll find out where the story goes from there. (I’m told this is actually how they wrote season four of Lost.) Since we can’t just go around in a circle (I mean, we could, but that would involve, like,... Read more
We’ll go up through October with these. November and December would seem less like a “year in review” than like a “remember last week?” kind of thing. JULY “Anti-government, anti-democracy“ They do not believe in it. They do not believe in government of the people, by the people and for the people. They cannot believe in it because they do not believe in government. That word, to them, means one and only one thing: tyranny. And so they respond to... Read more
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