On the one hand, you've got your religious evangelicals. They're born-again Christians who go to church twice every Sunday, read their daily devotions, try not to say "geez" because that's almost just as bad as swearing, feel guilty that they haven't done more to witness to you because they genuinely don't want you to go to Hell, and they just really Lord they just really just pray, Lord, all the time that, Lord, Jesus would just really just guide their... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 108-113 Buck Williams is hogging the spotlight. So far in Tribulation Force, the Buck pages are outnumbering the Rayford pages by more than 2-to-1. And even when we do check in briefly with Buck's co-star here it's mainly in order to eavesdrop on Chloe's side of Buck's romantic subplot, in which Rayford plays the role of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. This imbalance isn't surprising, given the way our dual protagonists function as fantasy stand-ins for... Read more
The Associated Press reports: SAN FRANCISCO — Stunned and angry, national left-handed leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the southpaw-franchise debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed left-handed people to vote, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for sinister... Read more
I made this recently, but I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Playing off of Jesus' charge to his disciples to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" we can construct the following grid of wisdom and innocence, charting four possible outcomes when you encounter someone purporting to be in need of your help: As you can see, one of these outcomes is a Very Good Thing, one is a Very Bad Thing, and the other... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 108-109 Buck Williams is sitting just outside of the Antichrist's office. He imagines he can feel the supernatural evil emanating from the next room. He desperately prays for divine protection, for deliverance, because he knows he's in extreme danger. Nicolae Carpathia has power over the minds of men and unless Buck is somehow able to convince him that he, too, is under his spell, that office may be the last room that Buck ever sees. Buck has... Read more
And then, suddenly, Fred remembered he had a blog. … Read more
I need help from people who know more than I do about science — in particular about gravity and what we do or don't know about how it works. What I'm trying to do is to find another angle for breaking through the protective shell that makes communication with "creationists" almost impossible. Some of my best friends, as the saying goes, are creationists, and it isn't good for them. It warps their faith and it puts them on the wrong... Read more
An article in the paper this weekend quoted a religious leader from New Jersey describing the basic message of his faith. "People should have high morals and be kind to each other," he said. That seems hard to argue with. So let's argue with it. Because actually this religious leader's formulation bothers me. What troubles me is the way he presents what seem to be two separate, distinct ideas: "high morals" and "kindness." This doesn't seem to be a matter... Read more
David Waters has a good rundown and smackdown of religious right opposition to the expansion of hate-crime law to include violence intended to intimidate lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. The bottom line is that these supposed people of faith are arguing in bad faith. They know this legislation won't affect their religious freedom in any way, but its enactment will force them to find a new lucrative bogeyman for future fundraising letters. That was fairly straightforward, but let me... Read more
Author Tom Sine tells a story about his first encounter with Ron Sider's book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. It made him mad. Sider's book suggested that money was a major theme of the Bible. Tom knew better. He had read the Bible. He read it every day. Like any good evangelical, he had committed big chunks of it to memory. It might mention money a handful of times, but mainly it was about other things, stuff like... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In