Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger (1925-2011)

Last updated on: March 8, 2011 at 6:55 pm By Fred Clark

Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger has died. Kroeger, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, helped to change the world for the better by founding two valuable and necessary organizations, Christians for Biblical Equality and PASCH (Peace and Safety in Christian Homes). Here is her Boston Globe obituary, and a memorial post from Christians for Biblical Equality. CBE has become a leading voice for what evangelical Christians refer to as an “egalitarian view of ministry.” In its own words, it is an... Read more

"Design matters" (Fred is an idiot, Part XVI)

Last updated on: March 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm By Fred Clark

If you ever want to know about the creation, nurture and health of online communities, ask Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. They’ve been doing this and thinking about how it works since before the Web, and you can see the results in the community of commenters at their blog, Making Light, where I often lurk to enjoy the conversation there, feeling like a busboy at the Algonquin in the ’20s. “Design matters,” Patrick says, and he did such a nifty... Read more

TF: Proof and madness

Last updated on: March 7, 2011 at 8:24 pm By Fred Clark

For those who arrived here looking for Fred Clark's posts we can do no better than to quote his own announcement: Slacktivist is moving, heading over to join the growing community at Patheos.com. The new URL will be: www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/. Fred's last typepad/Slacktivist TF post is below. This site remains as a place for those who have long been reading and commenting on Fred's posts to continue to meet and talk. Tribulation Force, pp. 346-352 The set-up: The man at the... Read more

Could we start again, please?

Last updated on: March 7, 2011 at 7:34 pm By Fred Clark

OK, let’s try that again. Reboot. Reset. Restart. Reinstall. Seek to be born again, as it were. Big news. Really big news. Very exciting news, I think, but also not terribly disruptive news if we do this right. Well, safe to say I’m 0-for-1 so far. Let me first address what the move won’t mean. The good news is it won’t mean any changes in the substance, content or frequency of this blog. And thus, of course, the bad news... Read more

TF: Proof and madness

Last updated on: March 7, 2011 at 1:36 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 346-352 The set-up: The man at the counter handed Buck a message from Rayford, but since it was not marked urgent, he decided not to call him until morning. Rayford Steele had just learned about the implausibly rapid takeover of every media outlet in the world by Nicolae Carpathia, creating a global monopoly — the Antichrist’s One-World Media. Jerry Jenkins devotes quite a bit more space and readers’ time to this set-up, orchestrating a situation in which... Read more

Weekend link dump

Last updated on: March 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm By Fred Clark

In response to some concerns about hospitality toward atheists and the nonreligious here at the new site I started to write about why that saddened me and why its terribly important to me, personally, that my own faith and the various faiths of my new friends here not in any way be perceived to be exclusive or unwelcoming to the contributions of anyone, but somehow what started out as a description of why and how much I value the presence... Read more

ISO comments on comments

Last updated on: March 5, 2011 at 4:10 am By Fred Clark

I’m still learning to drive the new car here in WordPress/disqus land, and there’s more flexibility to it than I’ve yet learned to navigate. So consider this an open thread on comments and the comment system here. What’s good/better with the comment system and structure? What’s bad/not working? I don’t want to lose any voices from the ongoing conversation or, worse, to silence/shut out anyone who wants to participate and is having trouble doing so here. So please let me... Read more

The Gate to the Genius Next Door

Last updated on: March 4, 2011 at 6:03 pm By Fred Clark

They knew that they would never pass this way again … “The Gate of the World,” Daniel Amos “Gavin’s Song,” Marc Broussard “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” Billie Holiday “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes),” Carla Thomas “Geek in the Pink,” Jason Mraz “Geek Stink Breath,” Green Day “Generals and Majors,” XTC “Genesis 3:23,” Mountain Goats “Genius Next Door,” Regina Spektor “Therefore the Lord God sent... Read more

Wendell Berry, Friday music game

Last updated on: March 4, 2011 at 1:48 pm By Fred Clark

Couple new items up on the new site: "Honoring the Mad Farmer" and "The Gate to the Genius Next Door" Read more

Honoring the Mad Farmer

Last updated on: March 4, 2011 at 6:25 am By Fred Clark

That picture there (by AP photographer Charles Dharapak) shows President Barack Obama presenting Wendell Berry with a 2010 National Humanities Medal on Wednesday at the White House. Wendell Berry scares me. He is a poet, novelist, essayist, farmer, husband, conservationist, radical and gentleman. He writes with an unrivaled clarity of language, clarity of thought and clarity of conviction. It’s that conviction that scares me, because often when I read Wendell Berry I can’t help but think that if he is... Read more