Recently the fabric of my universe got re-woven through the adoption of a pair of orange kittens. Today I wanted to write an update about them since so many of y’all were interested, and also to talk about something I was reading about wonderment last week that caught my attention. Bumble Read more
There is something truly grotesque about the way so many Christians seem to get off on the idea of people burning in Hell. I don’t think they even realize they’re coming off that way, they’re so desensitized to the idea by now. The idea that a huge number of their family members, loved ones, and total strangers alike are one day going to burn forever and ever and ever is so endemic to their worldview that I’m not sure they even realize what it means or what their gloating implies about them as people. Today we’re going to talk about this mindset and what it means–and why good people reject it.
A long time ago, I wrote a post called “A Cult of “Before” Stories” in which I described what it was like as a young Christian to realize that my then-husband had constructed a testimony full of lies–and how I realized that pretty much all of the really dramatic testimonies I heard from other Christians were largely untrue as well. On the heels of realizing that these stories were untrue, I also began to perceive the unbelievably rich rewards Christians get for concocting and sharing these dramatic testimonies. I began to see my tribe as one that was simply obsessed with these “before” stories–thus, my name for the mindset.
Sometimes when people can’t possibly achieve a goal, they start setting some downright odd priorities to make themselves feel like they’re getting something done. Lately we’re seeing some of that behavior out of Christians–and it’s another sign that things are getting better (for the rest of us). Misplaced priorities are just part of the dying pains of a major movement. This time it’s not quite as comical–or as harmless–as their apparent war over how brightly-lit their churches should be during services. This time they’re attacking tolerance itself.
I couldn’t help but notice a major shift in the tenor of how Christians are engaging with general culture in the wake of the Supreme Court case about equal marriage–and a new discussion emerging from the ashes of that decision. Today we’re going to talk about that shift and what that discussion is, and what that discussion is leading toward for them–and us.
Airline High School of Louisiana has a problem. Airline is a public school that has become embroiled in the latest example of right-wing Christian overreach disguised as religious freedom. Today we’re going to talk about how this case illustrates the various excuses the Christian Right is using for their misbehavior, and why those excuses are bullshit.
This is what happened the day we took Monster to the vet, and after, and about death, and life, and kittens.
For a group of people who genuinely believe that their god is the most powerful force in the universe, evangelical Christians as a group sure do shit their pants over the idea of Halloween. Today we’re going to talk about why they seem to love to hate Halloween, and what this love-hate relationship means for the religion.
I saw this really neat Washington Post article about stupidity earlier and I wanted to bring it up because let’s face it: if we’re not dealing with the stuff we do ourselves, we’re dealing with the stuff other people do. Knowing where this behavior comes from might come in handy.
Mr. Captain and I have–or rather had–a cat we nicknamed Monster for how downright evil she was (but she was “just a little one”). She passed away yesterday. Her death reminded me of how David Marshall, among many other Christians, believes that this world we live in is the best possible world out of all possible configurations and that his god is in charge of all of it–and how wrong that belief is in reality.