It is the idea that democracy means everything is subject to the will of the majority — including the rights of minorities, which therefore aren’t rights at all, merely privileges permitted or withheld by the sentiment of the majority Read more

When this blog started, newspapers were still writing, “so-called Web logs, or ‘blogs’ …” From February 24, 2011, “Cricket. Cricket. Tumbleweed“: This is what we’ve come to expect from the incredibly shrinking opposition to marriage equality: 1) the assertion that there are “lots” of excellent, terribly important arguments in support of a legal ban against same-sex couples getting married, and 2) the failure to mention what all those “lots” of excellent, terribly important arguments might actually be. Nowhere was this... Read more

American society is marked by the otherwise inexplicable phenomenon of the haves resenting the have-nots. Read more

Hal Lindsey, waiting on tables, a prophet's arrest record, and a timely dose of the Dickies. Read more

I don't believe our friends are the callous, apathetic monsters they pretend to be. Read more

In a sense, I was fumbling my way toward something like Wesley's "four-legged stool." Read more

What does it mean that the couple at the center of this tale of abuse, infidelity, and murder were devout white evangelical Christians? Read more

I'm not usually a "true crime" guy, but Jason Morphew got me sucked in to the case involving his cousin, who faces a first-degree murder trial in May. Read more

When this blog started, newspapers were still writing, “so-called Web logs, or ‘blogs’ …” From February 20, 2007, “The Street That Wasn’t There“: I first learned about this as a kid, when I inherited my older brother’s ten-speed and a road atlas of Middlesex County. My best friend lived in one of two houses on a short street connecting two dead ends, like the crossbar of capital “H.” The road atlas, however, showed another street connecting the dead ends further... Read more

When this blog started, newspapers were still writing, “so-called Web logs, or ‘blogs’ …” From February 19, 2014, “The 1847 letter that tells you everything you need to know about white evangelicals in 2014“: The Rev. Benjamin Chase interviewed Judge Staines in 1847 and wrote about her for The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper. Here’s a short excerpt from Chase’s article. This was written as an indictment of white evangelicals in 1847, but it still tells you everything you need to know... Read more