Category Archives: Religion

Smokey, Meet Santa

I received an email a couple of days ago. The message in this disturbing missive: “Only YOU can save Christmas!” Dammit. It was bad enough when only I could prevent forest fires. The email comes courtesy of an outfit calling … Continue reading

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Martin Palmer: The Jesus Sutras

We’ve never suffered from a dearth of books on Christianity. Even leaving aside the Bible, books on all things Christian–apologetics, fiction, inspirational tracts, and even books that take on Christianity from an atheistic viewpoint–have never been in short supply. The … Continue reading

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Robert S. McElvaine: Grand Theft Jesus

Robert McElvaine is one pissed-off individual. It’s hard to escape the conclusion, all the way from the cover to the very last page of his Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America. On the other hand, all the old … Continue reading

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…And if You Believe That, There’s a Guy in Holland with an Ark to Sell You.

My brain hurts. Here’s why: Yesterday, I received an email that told of a Dutch creationist named Johan Huibers, who got it in his head to build Noah’s Ark to the same specs that God gave Noah in the Bible. … Continue reading

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Gustav Niebuhr: Beyond Tolerance

So when, exactly, is tolerance a bad, or at the very least counterproductive, thing? Former New York Times religion writer (and current Syracuse professor) Gustav Niebuhr sets out to answer that question in Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in … Continue reading

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Proposition 8 Part 2: WWJD?

One of the many arguments over Prop 8 comes down to theology. Many who oppose same-sex marriage, or even just homosexuality in general, argue that it’s not only against nature, but against God. By now, anyone with a television has seen … Continue reading

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Panning for God

As with so much else, Rumi had it right: When light returns to its source it takes nothing of what it has illuminated. It may have shone on a garbage dump, or a garden, or in the center of a … Continue reading

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Summum jus, summa injuria.

So says Cicero: Extreme justice is extreme injustice. In his blog Confessions of a Small Church Pastor, Chuck Warnock writes about the recent execution of Christopher Scott Emmett: While I realize there is a lot of disagreement on the issue … Continue reading

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Jefferson’s Bible

I don’t remember quite how I came across this. As with so much else, I was probably looking for something else and came across it by accident. Oh, in case you were wondering what “it” is, it’s Jefferson’s Bible. A bit … Continue reading

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You Want Me to do WHAT?

I’m not sure what it is about me that everyone thinks I need to be converted to something else. Catholics, Muslims, Jehova’s Witnesses, and Protestants of practically every stripe think that I need to join their crowd. It’s like PBS with … Continue reading

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