Whenever you hear about any institution or group that specifically singles out one group to hold all the power and exalts the voices of that group while stripping other groups of power and voices, abuse and scandals not only become more likely, but they become inevitable. There isn’t some other way that can work. Today we’ll talk about why and how that is.
Everybody can learn new things. Why, just this morning I figured out how to get italics into my blog post titles. So I knew going into this movie that it’s about Kirk Cameron’s character saving his marriage, so who knows, maybe I’ll learn some amazing new tips and tricks to use in my own relationships!
Back in my Pentecostal days, there was a phrase I heard non-stop: “the original Greek and Hebrew,” used to describe my denomination’s doctrines and creed. The idea was that our denomination, unlike those of all those other inferior Christians doing everything wrong, had gotten our ideas from “the original Greek and Hebrew” and therefore were closer to what our god wanted out of his followers than all those other Christians were. I notice that Christians still love that phrase, so I want to talk about it today.
A Pentecostal man who got into snake-handling has died in Kentucky after getting bitten by a snake at Mossie Simpson Pentecostal Church.
We’ve talked off and on in the past about various Christian “apology” movements, wherein earnest Christians apologize for some particular mistreatment or offense Christians as a whole may have given others. Today I want to talk a little about why these campaigns are so beloved by Christians, but so absolutely ineffectual in impact.
We’ve been talking recently about Christians’ hilarious guesses about why people are leaving their ranks in comments across this blog, and it reminded me of something.
I was reading this funny site that gathers “horror stories” from Christians about really awful church experiences they’ve had and realizing that quite a lot of Christian marketing isn’t very well thought-through. Not much says “churches are businesses like any other” quite like the amazing and extensive variety of resources available Read more
But I saw an image not long ago that really put things into perspective for me. It asks one of those questions that, once I’d seen it asked, made it impossible for me to see this issue of disobedient county clerks in any other way other than them behaving as petulant bullies.
I’m just going to warn you now: stuff like we’re about to discuss today is exactly why a certain Christian apologist is now the subject of an erotic e-novel involving a crocoduck.
Recently I made an offhand comment about how I saw hypocrisy in religion as not a bug or a glitch in the ideology, but a feature of it. Today I want to expand on that idea a little more because I caught myself by surprise there and realized that it’s important. I began thinking about gaming, and how games are structured around features and bugs. So yes: today is a gaming post!