Go here. Click random. Resurface hours later. Read more
Go here. Click random. Resurface hours later. Read more
See Karl. Karl Giberson and colleague Randall J. Stephens say that the Earth is more than 10,000 years old. They say that humans and dinosaurs did not live together. They say that America’s founders were not evangelical Christians and that Christianity is not established as America’s official religion. They say that heterosexuality is not a choice. They also say that these aren’t just their opinions. They insist that these are “facts,” and that facts such as these are true whether... Read more
Patheos is hosting a book club this month on W. Scott Poole’s Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting. It’s great fun and a whipsmart book, and I will have a more formal contribution to the discussion of it a bit later. For now, though, I just want to share one small piece. It’s an aside, a tossed-off tangent mostly unrelated to the larger themes and ideas of Poole’s book, but it’s an observation that... Read more
Joe Carter of First Things is horrified that Karl Giberson and Randall J. Stephens would dare to besmirch the honor of intellectual giants like David Barton, Ken Ham and James Dobson. Carter leaps to their defense with a two pronged strategy of First Things’ usual self-aggrandizing huff-and-puffery (calling their op-ed “the type of sophomoric, bias-confirming piece that no reputable publication would touch”) and of some kind of post-postmodern radical rejection of all epistemology. The core of Carter’s argument is that... Read more
“Responsible action must decide not simply between right and wrong, good and evil, but between right and right, wrong and wrong.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer I wish I’d read that Bonhoeffer sentence last week before babbling on for too long in this post trying to say the same thing. “I threw out the moneylenders for a reason” Common Sense Jesus (a response to Herman Cain) “Survey: Frequent Bible Reading Can Turn You Liberal” Carol Howard Merritt: “Seven Things Guys Need to... Read more
Karl Giberson and Randall J. Stephens, who we discussed a few weeks ago in “Evangelicals vs. Science,” have an op-ed column in today’s New York Times on “The Evangelical Rejection of Reason.” The Republican presidential field has become a showcase of evangelical anti-intellectualism. Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann deny that climate change is real and caused by humans. Mr. Perry and Mrs. Bachmann dismiss evolution as an unproven theory. … The rejection of science seems to be part... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 425-426 The double ceremony in Bruce’s office two weeks later was the most private wedding anyone could imagine. If you’re getting married and your dad is getting married at the same time in the same room by the same preacher, then I can actually imagine a much more private wedding ceremony. Only the five of them were in the room. Bruce Barnes concluded by thanking God for all the smiles, the embraces, the kisses and the prayer.... Read more
Alice K. Turner’s The History of Hell is not a book of theology. The book draws on several disciplines, with art history, literature and folklore all playing a much larger role than any formal theology. And that’s only fitting, because our idea of “Hell” has been shaped over the centuries far more by art, literature and folklore than it has been by any formal theology. The word “Hell” is an awkward English translation for several different words in our Bibles.... Read more
The American Family Association is a religious right organization that is viewed as a bastion of wild-eyed right-wing extremism even by other religious right organizations. AFA is the home of, for example, Bryan Fischer, who seems almost to believe the outrageous and vile things he regularly says about gays, Muslims, Mormons, and the rest of the barbaric hordes he sees as threatening white straight Christian civilization. AFA’s website hosts blogs by Fischer, Chuck Norris and David Limbaugh, as well as... Read more
Deuteronomy 24:17-21 You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In