Scaife’s pocket go-fer

Last updated on: February 11, 2006 at 7:26 pm By Fred Clark

"Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action" — is refreshing, in part because it's list of 86 endorsers goes beyond the usual suspects of "progressive evangelicals" to include some prominent figures from the community's very conservative mainstream. Backing from influential clergymen like author/mega-church pastor Rick Warren means this effort can't be shrugged off as some "left-wing" crusade from the Jim-Wallis-fringe of evangelicalism. Laurie Goodstein has a perceptive New York Times piece on the statement, "Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative."... Read more

“No exceptions”

Last updated on: February 11, 2006 at 3:31 pm By Fred Clark

18 Comments

Here's the cover to the latest issue of Christianity Today. Good for CT. The full title of that lead article is "Five Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong: And why there should be no exceptions." It's by Southern Baptist ethicist David P. Gushee, who was also an endorser of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. That campaign's initial statement reads, in part: Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions hold dear. It degrades everyone involved –policy-makers,... Read more

Random 10

Last updated on: February 10, 2006 at 12:30 pm By Fred Clark

7 Comments

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows the captain lied … Echo and the Bunnymen, "People Are Strange" The Muppets, "Ma Nah Mah Na" Tom Waits, "Picture in a Frame" Tori Amos, "Time" Sarah McLachlan, "Ol' 55" Lucinda Williams, "Still I Long for Your Kiss" Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows" Freedy Johnston, "Bad Reputation" The Pretenders, "Brass in Pocket" Aimee Mann, "Build that Wall" Seems iTunes was in the mood for some Tom Waits today. Read more

It’s called “acting”

Last updated on: February 9, 2006 at 7:09 pm By Fred Clark

48 Comments

OK, a bit more about the End of the Spear "controversy." Some evangelical Christians — including the producers of the film itself — are upset to learn that a homosexual actor, Chad Allen, has been cast in a movie about evangelical missionaries. This is a bizarre thing to get upset about. They didn't hire Allen to teach Sunday School, they hired him to act. The only question that matters, therefore, is whether or not the guy is a good actor.... Read more

Deliberate mendacity

Last updated on: February 9, 2006 at 5:46 pm By Fred Clark

13 Comments

Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times wrote last weekend about political pressure and threats directed against NASA scientists by political appointees. "NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness," Revkin reported, noting that NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin had been forced to take sides, writing in an e-mail to everyone in the agency, "It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff." The article singled out one public-affairs... Read more

Loose Ends

Last updated on: February 9, 2006 at 12:37 am By Fred Clark

15 Comments

I've always liked this quote from slain missionary Jim Elliott: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." First read that in the Spire Comics version of Through Gates of Splendor. (And I really thought I remembered a Billy Graham film of this story, but apparently not.) That story was retold in the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor and is being retold again in the new feature film End of... Read more

“Don’t call anyone unclean that God has made clean”

Last updated on: February 7, 2006 at 3:53 pm By Fred Clark

24 Comments

Steve Gushee of The Palm Beach Post reminds us that Saturday was the Feast Day of St. Cornelius. So in honor of Cornelius the Centurion, here's a golden oldie from the Slacktivist archives: "The Abominable Shellfish: Why some Christians hate gays but love bacon" Gushee tiptoes a bit, but he understands the point of the story of Cornelius: The story reminds us that the God's will is often contrary to our conventional wisdom and traditional values. More often than not,... Read more

PSM

Last updated on: February 7, 2006 at 11:14 am By Fred Clark

11 Comments

Teresa Nielsen Hayden links to this advice on "Being able to write" from K.G. Schneider, the Free Range Librarian. It's all good advice, but I want to quibble with one point. Schneider notes that sticking to a schedule keeps her focused and "less likely to waste eight hours piddling in pencil-sharpening mode." Since when was "pencil-sharpening mode" a bad thing? If it weren't for pencil-sharpening mode, I'd never get anything else done. Deadline- and blank-screen-avoidance can be an immensely inspiring,... Read more

Bad bankers lose money, Part II

Last updated on: February 6, 2006 at 11:03 am By Fred Clark

44 Comments

Here we move from the subject of odious debt to the subject of foolish debt. That is, debt that is foolish on behalf of both the borrower and the lender. The bankruptcy legislation signed into law by President Bush last year should have sent a clear signal to shareholders of the banks that lobbied for that bill. Why would these banks want or need such a law? Only one reason: They know they've built a house of cards and they... Read more

Let’s spend some time together

Last updated on: February 5, 2006 at 7:44 pm By Fred Clark

24 Comments

Wow. That was pretty cool. The Stones really earned my respect with that one. They could've just followed the timid rules of their network sponsors, self-censoring any objectionable lyrics, but they refused to do that. When they scrapped their network-approved set-list and launched into "Sweet Neo Con" they proved they were bigger than the Superbowl and provided something far more memorable than just another timid, inoffensive, Up-With-People style halftime show. Read more