There once was a lady from Dayton Her hair did grow long, though not straightened, Then the young Reformers, Said she’d be much warmer, In life everlasting with Satan. A couple weeks ago, I held a contest giving readers the chance to win the new book by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo. All you had to do was write a limerick about social justice. There were scores of entries, and I picked ten winners. Thomas Nelson has now given me... Read more
When it comes to astrology, I’m with Fred: it’s hooey. When it comes to Patheos’s commitment to pluralism, and thus to an Astrology Channel, I’m also with Fred: “The proposed mechanism is all out of proportion with the described effects,” vorjack says of astrology. And I agree. The impetus for that post was the introduction of Patheos’ new Astrology channel. I’m not a fan of astrology. I do not believe in it — do not believe it is true or... Read more
I know that some of you are complaining about the pop-ups. When I came to Patheos, I negotiated no pop-ups on my blog, so they’re working on turning them off. You’ll still see them on other Patheos pages (even if you have a pop-up blocker, it seems). There’s another problem with ads: they sometimes do not represent my views. I’m guessing you already know this, but I want to make it clear. Here, for example, is one ad that was... Read more
In Tuesday’s Questions That Haunt Christianity, Bill Dahl asked, What if we’re wrong? What if God turns out to be multi-faceted — one head that has many faces, including the faces of The Buddha, Mohammed, Moses and Jesus, as well as others?…What if religions are human constructs, not reflections of the face, heart, feet and hands of God? As always, great comments ensued. I particularly liked this thread, because I have feelings like both Ric and Lausten, (more…) Read more
Last week, I ran a contest whereby readers could submit limericks about Christian social justice and win a copy of the new book by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo, Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?. Below are the winners, as chosen by me based on hilarity and the rules of limericks (which some entrants struggled to obey). Next week, a similar contest to win copies of Rachel Held Evans’s new book. And now, without further ado,... Read more
Editor’s Note: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos feature. Patheos was designed to present the world’s most compelling conversations on life’s most important questions. Please join the Facebook following for our new News and Politics Channel — and check back throughout the month for more commentary on Election 2012. Please use hashtag #PatheosElection on Twitter. This week’s question in Patheos’s run up to the election is, Does a candidate’s faith really matter? I say, yes, of... Read more
Last night, in the final question of the town hall-style debate, the candidates were asked how they’ve been misunderstood as men, and how they’d like to correct that misperception. In his response, Mitt Romney said that he’d served as a “pastor” of a church: My — my passion probably flows from the fact that I believe in God. And I believe we’re all children of the same God. I believe we have a responsibility to care for one another. I... Read more
I’ve been wondering what the Enneagram numbers are of our two candidates and what they means about our choices in the election. Although you’re not supposed to pin a number on another person, when someone is as much in the public eye as a presidential nominee, it’s pretty clear to Enneagram experts what number they are. So I asked around in the Enneagram community and found out that they’re a consensus on Mitt Romney’s and Barack Obama’s numbers. On Monday, I posted... Read more
This week’s entry in Questions That Haunt Christianity comes from an old friend. Bill Dahl has been hanging around the emerging church conversation for years (when he’s not hiking, fishing, and playing with his grandkids). He wrote The Porpoise Diving Life, and he writes this intriguing question for us: (more…) Read more
Billy Graham met with Mitt Romney last week. According to the press secretaries of each, Graham told Romney he’d do “all I can” to help get Romney elected. It seems that one of those things is to remove the long-standing statements about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints being a cult from the BGEA website: A Billy Graham Evangelistic Association article labeling Mormonism a cult has been removed from the group’s website following the 93-year-old televangelist’s meeting... Read more
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