{"id":26413,"date":"2015-01-20T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=26413"},"modified":"2015-01-20T08:00:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T13:00:21","slug":"this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/01\/20\/this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the sound of the four walls falling in"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u2022 In Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi, yesterday wasn\u2019t just a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., it was also a day to celebrate the honorable men who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/rachel-maddow-show\/some-states-its-not-just-day-honor-dr-king\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">committed treason in defense of slavery, rape, kidnapping and torture<\/a>. This would seem to be yet another category in which Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi come in 48th, 49th and 50th.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/bad_astronomy\/2015\/01\/17\/qvc_the_moon_planets_and_stars.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">People in glass planets shouldn\u2019t throw asteroids<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 I suspect this may be staged, but even if so, it\u2019s pretty awesome: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2015\/01\/delaware-cop-caught-on-dashcam-rocking-out-to-taylor-swifts-shake-it-off\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Delaware cop caught on dashcam rocking out to Taylor Swift\u2019s \u2018Shake It Off<\/a>.'\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/culture-desk\/cover-story-2015-01-26\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-26458 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/01\/CoverStory-1-26-15-690-942-16132003-219x300.jpg\" alt=\"CoverStory-1-26-15-690-942-16132003\" width=\"219\" height=\"300\"><\/a>\u2022 Here\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsokaytobesmart.com\/post\/108554517792\/will-we-not-discover-that-our-man-made-instruments\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">MLK talking\u00a0like NDT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 As a follow-up of sorts to my comments the other day on Bryan Fischer\u2019s apparent monolatrous polytheism, here\u2019s a lecture by Dr. Carol A. Newsom of Emory on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/biblicalstudiesonline.wordpress.com\/2015\/01\/18\/carol-a-newsom-demons-and-evil-angels-in-early-judaism\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Demons and Evil Angels in Early Judaism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From the abstract: \u201cAlthough rabbinic Judaism largely rejected it, this worldview strongly shaped Christian religious beliefs. And while modernist Christians do not take the mythology of evil spirits literally, variations on these beliefs remain common among conservative evangelical and <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/pentecostal' target='_blank'>Pentecostal<\/a> Christians throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oak_Island\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Franklin Roosevelt was part of the Old Gold Salvage group of 1909<\/a> and kept up with news and developments for most of his life.\u201d (I fell down a linkhole and wound up in this odd corner of Wikipedia. It happens.)<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cFundy Rule No. 3. The less certain something is, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stufffundieslike.com\/2015\/01\/doubling-down-on-the-doubling-down\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the more certain you must appear to be<\/a> about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <em>Land o\u2019 Goshen<\/em> there are some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/friendlyatheist\/2015\/01\/19\/newly-named-lebanon-high-school-upsets-texas-parents-who-say-it-isnt-very-patriotic\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">biblically illiterate uptight Christians in Frisco, Texas<\/a>. I appreciate that <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/20\/texas-most-hated-tree-drought-wildfires-renew-interest-in-cedar-eradication\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">cedar trees are unpopular in Texas nowadays<\/a>, but it\u2019s a bit odd that all these Bible-Christian types seem utterly clueless as to why their predecessors referred to the area as Lebanon. And it\u2019s just ignorant\u00a0for Bible-belt residents who are so proud of their \u201cChristian heritage\u201d to hear biblical place names and think only of \u201call the sad and turmoil that goes on in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And boy are these people in for a shock when they realize\u00a0where <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abilene_(biblical)\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Abilene<\/a> gets its name from.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/dracofidus.tumblr.com\/tagged\/draco-goes-to-tilley-farm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Anthony Stewart Head is a mensch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biblical place names and the biblically illiterate; a holiday to celebrate treason in defense of slavery; FDR in search of Captain Kidd&#8217;s treasure; and a burly cop dances like there&#8217;s no one watching. And if you don&#8217;t read any of that, just click on the link about Rupert Giles because that&#8217;s one of the most encouraging things I&#8217;ve read in quite a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This is the sound of the four walls falling in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Biblical place names and the biblically illiterate; a holiday to celebrate treason in defense of slavery; FDR in search of Captain Kidd&#039;s treasure; and a burly cop dances like there&#039;s no one watching. And if you don&#039;t read any of that, just click on the link about Rupert Giles because that&#039;s one of the most encouraging things I&#039;ve read in quite a while.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/01\/20\/this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This is the sound of the four walls falling in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biblical place names and the biblically illiterate; a holiday to celebrate treason in defense of slavery; FDR in search of Captain Kidd&#039;s treasure; and a burly cop dances like there&#039;s no one watching. And if you don&#039;t read any of that, just click on the link about Rupert Giles because that&#039;s one of the most encouraging things I&#039;ve read in quite a while.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/01\/20\/this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-20T13:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-20T13:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2015\/01\/CoverStory-1-26-15-690-942-16132003-219x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/01\/20\/this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/01\/20\/this-is-the-sound-of-the-four-walls-falling-in\/\",\"name\":\"This is the sound of the four walls falling in\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-20T13:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-20T13:00:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Biblical place names and the biblically illiterate; a holiday to celebrate treason in defense of slavery; FDR in search of Captain Kidd's treasure; and a burly cop dances like there's no one watching. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This is the sound of the four walls falling in","description":"Biblical place names and the biblically illiterate; a holiday to celebrate treason in defense of slavery; FDR in search of Captain Kidd's treasure; and a burly cop dances like there's no one watching. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}