Now this is more like what I was expecting yesterday: overblown Christian hysteria in reaction to Election Day’s free reality check. Writing for forbes.com, Bill Flax weeps and wails over the imminent demise of Biblical Christianity in America. And it’s all a terrible misunderstanding. Christians never wanted a culture war, you see. They just wanted …
Category Archive: Religion
Nov 20 2012
A persecuted church
I thought this story might be an amusing look at yet another Christian group hypocritically claiming martyrdom and persecution. It isn’t. A decade ago, God spoke to Jane Whaley, and she says he told her to fight… “God told me, ‘Jane, you are at the beginning of a holocaust,’ ” Whaley says. “Before … we turned …
Nov 19 2012
Ah, theism
In Traverse City, Michigan, there’s been a bit of a kerfluffle over a Veterans Day choir concert at a local church. As mlive.com reports: [Pastor] David Walls decided to “censor” the concert three weeks ago over the objections of the church’s choir director. Walls told the paper that the prayer was rejected because the church …
Nov 16 2012
FFRF files suit against IRS
The Washington Post reports that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the IRS for selectively failing to enforce laws against political advocacy by non-profit organizations. The lawsuit argues that the IRS is not enforcing the federal tax code, which prohibits tax-exempt religious organizations from electioneering. Not enforcing it is a violation of equal protection …
Nov 15 2012
Why the Church is wrong
A few years ago, my home state amended its constitution specifically to prevent gay couples from being allowed to marry. They called it “defending” marriage, but of course what they really meant was “denying marriage to anyone who does not fall in love the same way we do.” I stewed about that for quite some …
Nov 12 2012
Vatican vows to fight equality
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Vatican is determined to fight to limit marriage exclusively to heterosexuals, calling the privileged status of heterosexuals “an achievement of civilization.” “It is clear that in Western countries there is a widespread tendency to modify the classic vision of marriage between a man and woman, or rather to try …
Nov 06 2012
The cost of religion
Sometimes people will ask, “What’s so bad about believing in God? Even if it’s just a myth, it still gives people hope and a sense of purpose. What harm does that do?” If it were simply a matter of motivating people to live good lives and hope for the best, we might say it does …
Nov 05 2012
Daily dose of irony
Writing on the Minnesota Public Radio web site, Prof. Savage of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity decries the breakdown of traditional gender roles. But, as advocates of gay marriage point out, marriage as an institution is not exactly the exemplar of stability it used to be. The sad fact is that the same …
Oct 31 2012
The “creed” of atheism
Just a quickie for today: The Irish Times just published a letter in which the writer expresses a kind of good will towards atheists. One sincerely hopes that Joe Humphreys is correct in his suggestion that a new, more reasonable form of atheism may be beginning to emerge, from the creed’s Irish adherents (Arts Ideas, …
Oct 12 2012
Our Father, who art a dickhead
I happened to catch a bit of Christian talk radio on my commute home the other day, and heard an exchange that was either funny or heartbreaking or possibly both. The guest was an author who had written a book about “God’s Purpose in Suffering,” or some such, and the point he was making was …
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