I’ve seen some appalling religious tracts in my day, but this one is right up there near the top of the list for worst tracts ever. I found it over at Treasury of Tracts. Apparently, it’s part of a larger booklet called Christian Charm Course which describes itself as… “A Course for Girls Giving Methods for Improving the Outer Appearance Along with Spiritual Instruction for Developing the True Beauty which Comes from a Heart surrendered to the Love of Jesus Christ.”... Read more

  Did you ever see Slumdog Millionaire? It’s the Academy Award winning film about a teenager from the Dhavari slum of Mumbai, India that [SPOILER ALERT] miraculously wins the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Well, this weekend the National Geographic Channel ran a special called The Real Slumdogs. (Yes, I watch a lot of the National Geographic Channel.) The documentary is an indepth look at the real residents of the Dhavari slum featured in the movie. In a lot of ways, Dhavari was much like what... Read more

I was flipping through iTunes Trailers yesterday and stumbled across the documentary God Loves Uganda. Whoa. Talk about a punch to the gut for anyone who’s ever been on an international mission trip. The film explores evangelical mission work in Uganda, specifically that of the International House of Prayer, and how that work may be (or is) contributing to the anti-gay hysteria that has been churned up in Uganda in recent years, most notably in the form of legislation that... Read more

You know what you should hand out to kids at Halloween this year? Kit-Kats? Skittles? M&Ms? Of course not! You should give them a gospel tract! Because obviously an 8 year is going to root through their bag of candy, ignore all the sugary goodness, and instead read through a religious tract, contemplate the meaning of life, realize they’re a sinner, and immediately say the sinner’s prayer. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, not to this guy. Here’s the thing. There’s a... Read more

You guys, Pat Robertson has solved the healthcare crisis!! According to Pat, tithing is a cure-all for poverty and whatever ails you. Why? Because the Bible says so. Of course, the Bible doesn’t actually say so, but that’s never stopped Pat before. Here’s the passage from Malachi that Pat tells us to read closely… “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw... Read more

FROM THE VAULT: As I’m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may have been missed by those who weren’t around when it was originally posted. Given the contentious political environment right now I thought it would be appropriate to bring this post out of the vault and give it a little makeover as a reminder that the people on the other side of the... Read more

I don’t know if you heard the news, but the government shutdown yesterday. They should really talk about that sort of thing on the news more so people are aware of what’s going on. Well, in an effort to help spread the word I wrote my monthly Church & State column for A Deeper Story today. I focused more on the Christian response to healthcare than the actual shutdown, but hopefully it will still help more people become aware of the... Read more

(H/T) I paid my first visit to a morgue this past weekend. Maybe I should back up and explain. This past weekend I drove down to Pennsylvania Dutch country for the funeral of someone I’ve never met. Yeah, I should probably back up a little more. So, this semester at school I’m taking a class called Writing About Religion. It’s taught by New York Times religion columnist Mark Oppenheimer (seriously, how cool is that?) and our big assignment is to write a... Read more

My friend over at Christian Nightmares just sent this to me. It looks fascinating. Just a point of clarification: I had nothing to do with this documentary and knew nothing about it until today. Anywho, can’t wait to see it. Make sure you check out the trailer below and if you want more info you can click here for the film’s official website. Read more

 Read more