Mike Warnke and Marriage Equality

Last updated on: November 11, 2015 at 5:37 pm By Fred Clark

Mike Warnke was a con artist. He traveled the country for years, packing the pews of evangelical churches with his message of salvation from Satan, selling thousands of books and records while hauling in millions in donations for the children he had supposedly rescued from the clutches of Satan-worshipping abusers. Warnke arrived in churches like Harold Hill from The Music Man — as charming and charismatically beguiling as any con artist could be. “You’ve got trouble right here in River... Read more

TF: Operation Chaste Harmony

Last updated on: April 18, 2011 at 1:24 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 366-368 Rayford’s credentials gave him a seat near the front with the American dignitaries. Here we are at the big treaty signing between Israel and the United Nations. If that makes sense to you — the idea that the U.N. would be the signatory to a treaty with a nation, rather than brokering a treaty between nations — then you’re just the sort of reader Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are looking for. And in that case... Read more

All that remains is a fragment of song

Last updated on: April 17, 2011 at 3:54 pm By Fred Clark

The Revealer brings us news of a study on the religious right’s bold new campaign to stand up for bullies and bullying. Among the groups bravely fighting for the right of the strong to torment the weak are the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and the American Family Association. Basically, any group with “Family” in the name is demanding the right to steal your lunch money. The objective of most of these organizations isn’t to just influence hearts... Read more

Civil unions in Delaware

Last updated on: April 15, 2011 at 1:37 pm By Fred Clark

The news from Delaware: Delaware’s House of Representatives voted 26-15 Thursday night to grant legal status to same-sex civil unions, giving those couples the same rights, protections and obligations now granted only to married couples. The vote followed three hours of debate that covered a wide range of concerns — some fiscal, some related to family relations, some related to equal access to civil unions for opposite-sex couples. When the vote was announced, the balcony — filled with supporters of... Read more

The Last

Last updated on: April 15, 2011 at 5:55 am By Fred Clark

Where are you now handsome Billy? “The Last Balloon,” XTC “Last Boat Leaving,” Elvis Costello “The Last Carnival,” Bruce Springsteen “Last Dance,” Sarah McLachlan “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance,” Sinead O’Connor “Last Fair Deal Gone Down,” Crooked Still “Last Goodbye,” Jeff Buckley “Last Hard Bible,” Kasey Chambers “Last Night,” The Mar-Keys “Last Night,” Over the Rhine “The Last Testament of Angus Shane,” The Lost Dogs “The Last Time,” Mightyhead “The Last Time I Saw Richard,” Joni Mitchell “Last Train... Read more

Ladling calculation upon comedy

Last updated on: April 14, 2011 at 2:07 pm By Fred Clark

Andrew O’Hehir of Salon asks “Why are Christian movies so awful?” I think the answer, as I suggested a while back, is because American evangelicalism distrusts metaphor: American evangelical Christians do not like metaphor. That’s not strong enough. They fear metaphor. It terrifies them, and so they despise it, reject it and forbid it wherever possible. … Evangelicals prefer their truth in simple, unambiguous propositions. … It is no accident that the Left Behind novels are remarkably free of metaphor,... Read more

Love and Holiness

Last updated on: April 13, 2011 at 5:30 pm By Fred Clark

I don’t want to just leave this to a footnote in a Left Behind post, because it’s much, much more than just a footnote in the Gospels, in Paul and in the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures: There is no such thing as holiness apart from love. This is a frequent, vehement, anvilicious theme in the Bible. Yet the confusion persists. We continue to hear arguments premised on the idea that God’s holiness is somehow distinct from and counter to... Read more

The parable of the erratically forgiving master

Last updated on: April 13, 2011 at 12:30 am By Fred Clark

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you... Read more

The 0.014 percent solution

Last updated on: April 12, 2011 at 5:17 pm By Fred Clark

[Edited to correct the English-major arithmetic of the original. &$@%.] So CNN/Opinion Research asked Americans how much they think the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the nonprofit that helps fund National Public Radio and PBS television — receives in federal funding, as a percentage of the federal budget. Most people responded that they thought it was between 1 and 5 percent of the federal budget. That’s a little bit off. Last year, the CPB actually received about $506 million in... Read more

TF: We defy augury

Last updated on: April 11, 2011 at 5:04 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 362-366 I wish I could be of more help,” Buck said, suddenly realizing what an understatement that was. What he wouldn’t give to expose Nicolae Carpathia as a lying murderer, the hypnotic Antichrist! And though Buck would oppose him, anyone without Christ would never understand or agree. Besides, Scripture didn’t seem to indicate that even Christ’s followers would be able to do more than simply bear up against him. The Antichrist was on a course foretold centuries... Read more