Well, lol, tomorrow’s supposed to be “the Rapture.” Are you Rapture Ready™? Those of us who grew up in fundamentalist/evangelical confines can probably readily remember the phrase “Rapture Ready.” We’d get asked that a lot: “If the rapture were to happen today, would you be ready? Would you be [cough] Rapture Ready?” I still have a ton of internalized anxiety about the so-called Rapture. It’s such a thing, a cursory search let me know it even has a Wikipedia page. I’m at point where I absolutely know it’s not real, never going to happen, is totally made...
Continue reading...Faith
The two ways
Okay, everybody open up your bibles (or whatever you call them) to Psalm (or whatever you call it) one. Not One Psalms (there aren’t multiple books of Psalms that I know of*), but the first psalm (the capitalization here is getting confusing). I guess before we get going, though, I should note that I know this particular psalm well. And to tell you why would require quite a bit of backstory. But this is my blog, so let’s do a backstory. The church I guess you could say I largely grew up in was a fundamentalist Christian...
Continue reading...America's Next Top Jesus Sculptor
(Good?) News from Ohio, folks. The long wait for the replacement Jesus statue may finally be winding down, says Darlene Bishop, co-founder of the Solid Rock Church outside of Cincinnati whose “Touchdown Jesus” statue burned down in a freak (or God-sent?) lightning strike back in June. According to Bishop, the field of potential savior-portrayers has been narrowed down to 5, and a decision will likely be made sometime this month. The new portrait won’t be an exact replica of the old one. Rather than a bust, the new one will likely be a full-body sculpture, and it...
Continue reading...Christine O'Donnell's imaginary witchcraft
Slactivist: The oddest thing to me about Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s “I Was A Teenage Witch” claims is that so much of the reaction has accepted her claim that such a thing might be possible. It is not. Her claims of “dabbling” in what she called “witchcraft” are not true. The supposed witchcraft she describes is not something that exists. Such stories of bloody altars and Satanic covens are common and they are false. All of them. That is a matter of established fact. The supposed witchery O’Donnell describes is simply the stuff of Satanic panic...
Continue reading...Atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons know more about religion than you do
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public life released a report today on America\’s religious knowledge, and the findings were…pretty surprising? Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions. On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do...
Continue reading...Why Muslims
Mark Silk knocks it out of the park: In recent years, the wise guys in the Republican Party have cottoned to the fact that the U.S. of A. has become a good deal more Latino than it used to be, and that it might not be such a good idea for the future of the GOP if it embraced (at least publicly) such anti-Latino-immigrant laws as Arizona passed a few months ago. Why not find a less politically potent body of Americans on which to vent one’s nativist animosity? I give you: The Muslims. Unlike the Latinos,...
Continue reading...Welcome to the Terrordome
Sometimes, it’s a little hard to like Majority Leader Harry Reid. Okay, not sometimes: Often. Sure, once in a while he’ll accomplish the historic passage of a Republican health care bill, but, generally, he’s blasé at best and offensively useless at worst. Or maybe just offensive. Offensive it is, again. Yesterday, in addressing the recent (cynical) outrage over the planning of an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center site, his spokesman, Jim Manley said, “The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that, but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.”...
Continue reading...Triumph for Religious Tolerance
I was glad to hear that the New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has voted to allow the construction to move forward for an Islamic Center near ground zero. The plan is moving ahead despite vehement protests from the usual suspects (Sarah Palin, calling for a “refudiation” of the mosque, Newt Gingrich, et al.), as well as some less likely suspects (the Anti-Defamation League, as Pop mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Constitutional, objected to the location of the Islamic Center, saying that its construction “in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain...
Continue reading...What's Next for Touchdown Jesus
As you’ll recall, last month a 62-foot statue of Jesus burned down after a lightning strike. It happens that this monstrosity is right along the highway I take from the airport when I visit my family in Ohio, so I got to see the skeletal remains of TD Jesus when I was there last week. I was curious about the church’s plans– perhaps after the fire, they’d had an epiphany that there are more worthy uses of $250,000 than reconstructing hideous flammable statuary? Ha! Of course not. Pastor Darlene Bishop brushed off such suggestions, saying that Solid...
Continue reading...Candidate for Congress Ed Martin thinks Barack Obama wants to stop you from being saved
Via TPM, we learn that Ed Martin, who seems to get his energy from the tea party movement, is afraid that the president wants to take away your freedom to worship. His logic? Well: One thing I like to say is: America is great, not because of our genetics. We’re great because we created a place and space where people can be free. And they can choose Christ, they can choose to be faithful. They can worship, and they find their way to the Lord. And — or some of them don’t. We sure want them all...
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