The IndigNation, defending bullies and the martyr Sally Kern

Last updated on: September 13, 2011 at 9:25 am By Fred Clark

I have a theory that the central motivation for much of American politics is a manufactured indignation. This indignation is stoked by the habitual taking of offense, whether or not such offense is actually there to be taken. The cultivation of such offendedness serves two emotional needs: 1) It’s exciting for those whose lives are otherwise kind of dull and pointless-seeming, and 2) It allows the people taking offense to pretend that they are better than those others whose behavior,... Read more

Refusing to bow before the Beast

Last updated on: September 12, 2011 at 3:21 pm By Fred Clark

Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics and Devotion in the Book of Revelation, by J. Nelson Kraybill, Brazos Press. The book of Revelation can be cryptic, but it’s not really as impenetrable or strange as we sometimes make it out to be. Much of what we portray as baffling in John of Patmos’ psychedelic visions would not have been even slightly ambiguous to those for whom the book was written. And since this is one of the first and clearest things... Read more

Job Seekers Open Thread

Last updated on: September 12, 2011 at 5:00 am By Fred Clark

. Here’s the good thing (or at least the thing I keep telling myself is a good thing): It’s September. It doesn’t matter that most employers aren’t bound by the academic year and that there’s nothing about their annual or seasonal schedule that makes September special. Like the rest of us, they can’t escape the pattern that was established from kindergarten through college. August ends and we turn the calendar’s page and tell ourselves to buckle down and get organized.... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: September 11, 2011 at 6:00 am By Fred Clark

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Read more

When the free market gives you free money, take it

Last updated on: September 10, 2011 at 12:14 pm By Fred Clark

The U.S. Mint has been trying to promote the use of $1 coins, offering free shipping to those who “purchase” large quantities of the more durable, more efficient currency. Some credit card banks promote the use of their cards by offering frequent flyer bonus miles as a reward. The more you purchase with those cards, the more bonus miles you collect. If you already see where this is going, then you’re a step ahead of the banks, the airlines and... Read more

Busy in the rows

Last updated on: September 9, 2011 at 5:33 am By Fred Clark

You’d think that we’d get awfully tired of going where we’ve been … September is still summer and still pre-frost, so in between hurricanes here in the Brandywine Valley I’ve been working on the lingering remnants of this year’s garden — still providing a trickle of tomatoes and cucumbers. Hence another thematic list: “Bad Fruit,” Randy Stonehill “Dead Flowers,” The Rolling Stones “Digging in the Dirt,” Peter Gabriel “Fake Plastic Trees,” Lori McKenna “Fake Plastic Trees,” Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees,”... Read more

Wherever the corpse is …

Last updated on: September 8, 2011 at 10:32 pm By Fred Clark

ἔσχατον: The Movie That’s the video from The Decemberists for their latest single “Calamity Song.” It’s based on the thermonuclear armageddon game devised by students at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which the students called “Eschaton” — from the New Testament term for the last day, the day of judgment. That’s the source of the word “eschatology,” the branch of theology involving ultimate things and the end of the world. Both ultimate and end there in more than one sense of... Read more

Hail to thee, our alma mater

Last updated on: September 8, 2011 at 2:04 pm By Fred Clark

A couple of recent posts elsewhere have me thinking back to my childhood as a student at a private, fundamentalist Christian school in New Jersey. Stuff Fundies Like just finished “Back to School Week,” ranging from kindergarten to college. I particularly liked this bit, from the post on high school: By the time a young fundamentalist has reached high school the focus of their spiritual instruction has narrowed down to two basic points. 1) Not having sex with anybody and... Read more

Jay Sekulow fleeces donors for big money

Last updated on: September 7, 2011 at 7:49 pm By Fred Clark

“Blessed are those who pretend to be persecuted, for they shall reap truckloads of cash and live like Hollywood stars.” No, that’s not from the Bible. It’s my paraphrase of Bob Smietana’s scrupulous piece of investigative journalism for The Tennessean: “Christian crusaders cash in: Sekulow’s family, firm collect millions.” Jay Sekulow is the head of the American Center for Law and Justice. The legal charity was founded in 1990 by televangelist and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson to be... Read more

TF: Post-Rapture economics

Last updated on: September 7, 2011 at 2:19 am By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 406-407 More than 18 months after the Rapture, it finally occurs to the authors that the final countdown of history might also have financial and economic implications: Rayford was going to be out of town until the day before he and Chloe and the new buyers were to close on the house. He smiled at the idea of buyers securing a 30-year mortgage. Someone was going to lose on that deal. Well, sort of. If this is... Read more

Why was crossing the Jordan River particularly difficult for the Israelites at that time?