From the archives: The Gay-Hatin' Gospel

Last updated on: July 9, 2011 at 11:05 am By Fred Clark

(I’m collecting and recollecting some older posts in the hopes of possibly bundling some of them into something book-like. So since I spent a chunk of yesterday revisiting the posts below, I figured I’d re-post them here in slightly repolished form.) A 2007 poll conducted by the Barna Group revealed some remarkable developments in the public perception of American evangelical Christians: Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is “anti-homosexual.” Overall, 91 percent of young non-Christians and 80... Read more

Real-Reasons

Last updated on: July 8, 2011 at 10:29 am By Fred Clark

I realize this doesn’t help a bit / but what can I do what can I do “Real Down Town,” Vigilantes of Love “Real Girls,” Daniel Amos “Real Long Distance,” Josh Ritter “Real Love,” Smashing Pumpkins “Real Love,” Regina Spektor “Real World,” Matchbox Twenty “Really,” Nellie McKay “Really Mystified,” Elvis Costello & The Attractions “Reason to Believe,” Aimee Mann & Michael Penn “Reason to Believe,” Bruce Springsteen “Reason to Believe,” Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band “Reason to Believe,”... Read more

The Gospel Blimp

Last updated on: July 7, 2011 at 4:20 pm By Fred Clark

PZ Myers encounters Spire Christian Comics and is predictably — and appropriately — horrified by Al Hartley’s aggressively preachy and condescending take on the Archie Comics. I had most of those Spire comics when I was a kid, and Myers is right that Hartley’s take on Archie and Riverdale seems like the work of a “demented fundamentalist.” He links to a post by Josh Dobbin exploring some of Hartley’s other overt proselytizing in the pages of the non-Spire Archie comics.... Read more

Orthodoxy and ignorance

Last updated on: July 7, 2011 at 12:00 am By Fred Clark

Mike Todd, writing about Rob Bell’s Love Wins and the (over)heated condemnation it has received, offers an insight into this fierce defense of rigid orthodoxies that collides neatly with our most recent Tribulation Force discussion. In particular, he explains why it is that real, true Christian heroes like Rayford Steele and Buck Williams cannot learn, change or grow. Here’s Mike, writing about “Love Hell, Conciousness and the (Current) Impossibility of ‘Church Unity‘”: If your spirituality is based on “believing the... Read more

TF: As sands through the hourglass …

Last updated on: July 6, 2011 at 3:38 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 399-400 A lot can happen in 18 months. Or not. We land a bit awkwardly after our leap forward in time to learn that our heroes’ circumstances have changed, but they themselves have not. They have not grown or learned or discovered much of anything new about themselves or the world around them. The chapter that follows that abrupt “Eighteen months later” time-skip reads like we’re returning to a bad soap opera that we used to watch... Read more

'That which is inhuman cannot be divine'

Last updated on: July 4, 2011 at 10:55 am By Fred Clark

Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852: Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too — great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable;... Read more

Job Seekers Open Thread

Last updated on: July 4, 2011 at 5:00 am By Fred Clark

. Job seekers: Let us know where you are and what you’re looking for. Everybody: Skim through and see if you know something, or know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who might help out one of our job seekers. The Internet is a strange and sometimes wonderful place, so who knows? Maybe we’ll find a connection that helps someone find the job they’re meant to be doing. Read more

XII Q

Last updated on: July 1, 2011 at 8:42 am By Fred Clark

I got no plans for tomorrow … “Quality Street,” Van Morrison “Que Sera Sera,” Pink Martini “Que Sera Sera,” Sly and the Family Stone “The Queen and the Soldier,” Suzanne Vega “Queen Jane Approximately,” Bob Dylan “Queen of Hearts,” Juice Newton “Queen of the Supermarket,” Bruce Springsteen “Queen of the World,” Ida Maria “Queen’s Tattoos,” Aztec Camera “Queer,” Garbage “A Question of Will,” Dondolo “Questions,” Jack Johnson When I was a kid I went to camp for one week every... Read more

We have a wheelbarrow

Last updated on: June 30, 2011 at 5:36 pm By Fred Clark

“I mean, if we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be something.” Thank you to everyone for your kind words and generosity in response to my getting laid off from the slowly dying newspaper industry. I’ve been struck, too, by how many others here — regular readers and commenters — are among the 14 million Americans and millions more elsewhere around the world who are looking for work and finding none. Skim through the comments here and you’ll find dozens... Read more

Amnesty at the DMV

Last updated on: June 30, 2011 at 10:52 am By Fred Clark

Earlier this month (pre-layoff) I replaced the 65,000-mile tires on the Yaris, enabling me to pass inspection and get a shiny new sticker on my windshield. That sticker reads “4/12,” and not “6/12” because my inspection was actually due by the end of April, not the beginning of June. In other words, I drove around for five weeks with an expired inspection sticker — with an illegal car. And DRIVING AN ILLEGAL CAR IS AGAINST THE LAW. That’s why at... Read more