‘That’s still funny, sweetie’

Last updated on: November 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm By Fred Clark

Instead of voting on President Obama’s jobs bill last week — or on anything to address America’s ongoing jobs crisis — the House of Representatives voted to reaffirm that America’s official motto remains its official motto. Steve Benen notes that the president chided Congress for wasting time with a nonbinding symbolic vote to reaffirm a previous nonbinding symbolic vote: President Obama invoked God Wednesday as he criticized Congress for voting on commemorative coins and a resolution reaffirming “In God We... Read more

Richard Land openly embraces the mendacious lifestyle

Last updated on: November 6, 2011 at 6:19 pm By Fred Clark

I noted the other day that I was glad to see Southern Baptist lobbyist Richard Land saying some reasonable things about immigration and commending a more civil approach to politics. “Instead of attacking the person,” Land said, “we deal with issues.” Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch notes that: This would be the same Richard Land who said that Oprah is “unimaginably dangerous,” that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would bring “God’s judgment on our nation,” and that... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: December 17, 2011 at 6:59 pm By Fred Clark

Tommy Craggs: “The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?“ Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and thanks God, he is engaging in a very conscious act of moral grandstanding. I write that with no judgment whatsoever. Tebow is saying, “Look at me,” just as surely as Deion Sanders doing the pigeon wing in the end zone was saying, “Look at me.” He is saying, “Look at me and gaze... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: November 6, 2011 at 9:13 am By Fred Clark

1 Timothy 6:3-10 Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Of course, there is great gain... Read more

This week in monsters

Last updated on: November 5, 2011 at 4:59 pm By Fred Clark

W. Scott Poole on “Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of Horror” You might assume that all of this zombie Jesus talk exists on the level of simplistic parody, barbs hurled at Christianity by its less-than-cultured despisers. You would be wrong. Zombie Jesus has provoked some serious spiritual and existential reflection. Laura Larson’s “The Business of Making Monsters” follows the same trajectory as Poole’s Monsters in America and arrives at a similar conclusion regarding our monstrous treatment of marginal... Read more

Worshippers of Bully-God seek religious freedom to be bullies

Last updated on: November 5, 2011 at 2:08 pm By Fred Clark

The state of Michigan has passed a new law saying that some forms of bullying are wrong. But for those in Michigan who believe that the God they worship is an Almighty Bully in the sky, and that this Bully-God requires them to bully others, Michigan says it’s perfectly legal and peachy-keen to keep tormenting others. Especially if those others are sexual or religious minorities. Just days after a cellphone video emerged showing a gay 15-year-old in Ohio being assaulted... Read more

Prayers of the Social Awakening: For those in business

Last updated on: November 5, 2011 at 10:41 am By Fred Clark

We plead with thee, O God, for our brothers who are pressed by the cares and beset by the temptations of business life. We acknowledge before thee our common guilt for the hardness and deceitfulness of industry and trade which lead us all into temptation and cause even the righteous to slip and fall. As long as man is set against man in a struggle for wealth, help the men in business to make their contest, as far as may... Read more

Encountering the self-proclaimed popes of evangelicalism

Last updated on: November 4, 2011 at 10:42 pm By Fred Clark

Peter LaBarbera is founder of the anti-gay group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality — “dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.” Earlier this week, LaBarbera published an open letter to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, calling on the psychology professor to repent and apologize for refusing to pretend that “ex-gay ministries” actually succeed in praying away the gay. LaBarbera also nastily suggested that Throckmorton’s refusal to lie about the effects of such “ministries” casts suspicion on his claim to be a Christian:... Read more

My Top 10 Larry Norman songs

Last updated on: November 4, 2011 at 2:01 pm By Fred Clark

Before starting another round of our musical Alphabet Game, I thought I’d delve a bit deeper into explaining some of the subcultural content of my music collection. By that I mean the “Christian rock” that takes up a big chunk of my iTunes library. I used to have much more of this music and it used to constitute a much bigger share of my collection, and thus of what I listened to. A lot of that music, alas, did not... Read more

The kingdom of God is like a practical joke

Last updated on: November 4, 2011 at 10:32 am By Fred Clark

Leaves are falling here in the Brandywine Valley, carpeting everything in a lovely, multicolored chore. This time of year always reminds me of one of my favorite church high school youth group activities from when I was growing up in a fundamentalist, nondenominational Baptist church in New Jersey. This one didn’t involve passing out gospel tracts. It was stealthier than that, which was why it was so much fun. This was one of the things our church got right, and... Read more

I am stone tablets written by the finger of God, given on a mountain shrouded in smoke. What am I?