I heard today that some restaurants are ending the tipping practice in favor of paying full-time real wages to their staff, and it made me think of my old Christian peers and how happy they undoubtedly are to get that news, because now it means they don’t have to make Read more
This whole thing coming out of Rome is just astonishing, isn’t it? I’m wondering now just how much of the current Pope’s activities were expected by the crusty old cardinals who elected him. He’s done such a 180 since he got into office that you’ve just got to think his Read more
Excellent dialogue earlier, folks, by the way, I want to say again. I mean this: you are the best comment gang on the internet. I appreciate you all so much. Wonderful, wonderful job keeping things civil and productive. I had an interesting exchange today with a rather belligerent young Christian Read more
Aren’t atheists just the worst? Jeez, aren’t non-Christians all just so totes over all this bickering and fighting? Why can’t we all just give it a rest and talk about “the truth”? Rachel Held Evans is sick of non-Christians (who she conflates with “atheists,” like most Christians do) pointing to Read more
Housekeeping post ahead — I saw something that really bugged me yesterday. Remember that Kim Hall “FYI” thing I talked about the other day? Well, while I was reading this way cool response to it (yes, it’s the HuffPo piece; it’s the same writer), I noticed in the blog’s comments Read more
I’m not intentionally making this into a feminist blog, but holy cow, stuff keeps happening. Remember what I was saying about zucchini? The Religious Right is like the zucchini of the “religious news that deserves mockery” garden. I don’t normally pick on Catholics too much, but this Catholic guy deserves Read more
A few days ago I saw this post written by a man who woke up to his sexism. It touched me, and I want to talk a little about it and make my own confession. This revelation may shock you, gentle friends and readers, but I was once a Manic Read more
A while ago I wrote a post called “The Daughters of Men” in which I cried aloud in the wilderness about a pastor who is deliberately teaching his daughters things that will potentially harm them significantly in their future lives as adults. It looks like this kind of horrifically poorly-done Read more
I was married to a preacher, I think I mentioned before, with Biff sliding very quickly into a position as a youth pastor. The trend of using youth pastors to minister exclusively to high school kids began when I was a new convert to fundamentalism–a trend that declared that young Read more
Sometimes I use the term “toxic Christian” to describe particular people, and today I want to talk about what that term means and why I use it.