I recently stumbled across a Christian radio station broadcasting on the Internet. Its origin is the far-right, King-James-Only sector of Protestant (make that Baptist—they’ve forgotten that they’re Protestants) fundamentalism. A perky choir was singing the following:...
Culture
The Western Creed
A new friend gave me a nice gift upon the successful defense of my dissertation, Horton’s new systematic theology. Horton makes some artful statements in the intro. See if you can catch the ironic theme: For over three centuries now, atheists and skeptics have...
Is This What We Were Made To Do?
That’s Why They Call it Pop
Very interesting! Does anybody in New York listen to classical music? The closest we got was Sinatra! (Or Terry Gross, I suppose.) HT: Jason Kottke HT: Alan Jacobs
Religion and Sex in the Bible when Viewed Through the Lenses of Liberal Presuppositions, Or, Nick Kristof Needs to Read More than One Book on This Controverted Topic
I have long enjoyed reading about the globe-trotting adventures of Nick Kristof, arch-liberal and New York Times columnist. Whatever his political ideology, he has literally given his own blood to save lives and shelled out his own cash to buy two girls out of sexual...
A Sword that Cuts Off Liberals’ and Conservatives’ Heads
Sometimes the principled reasons people give for taking a position are just window dressing, good for public display but only incidental to the heart of the matter, which is the state of their hearts. —Stanley Fish, The Trouble with Principle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard...
Kevin Bauder on Anti-Intellectualism
Years ago, Kevin Bauder’s address “A Fundamentalism Worth Saving” was helpful and influential for me. Recently, I found my mind going back to some of the points in a Nick of Time article he just put out. I have a feeling these thoughts will stick with me, too:...
May 21, 2011
It's not clear to me exactly what Harold Camping is predicting, but it is very, very sad. And wrong—though I wish he were right. Mark 13 admonishes readers against attempts at constructing timetables and deciphering signs of the Parousia. Disciples are admonished to...
Beautiful Royal Wedding Music, Contemporary Choral
I very much enjoyed this part of the wedding.
Thoughts vs. Feelings
NPR yesterday ran a story about capital punishment in Connecticut. Apparently, the state may possibly get rid of the death penalty just as a notorious double murder—a wife and daughter brutalized and killed for no reason—goes to trial. This has made for an interesting...
Blog-o-morph-o-sphere
I’ve watched the blogosphere morph and grow over time; I think I became a regular blog-reader in 2001 or 2002. (I had a blog then, too, but it didn’t last—mainly because I did not think I had anything worth saying publicly; I wanted to get some education.) You know...
The F-Word on a Family-Safe Blog, Or Why Ken Myers Was Right in 1989
The New York Times' Jon Pareles today in a perceptive article: It’s some kind of milestone: Three of the Top 10 hits on last week’s pop music chart have choruses that can’t be played uncensored on the radio and won’t have their original lyrics quoted in this family...