If you’re seeing this blog post a bit late, here’s the writeup about the wide-release November 24th doodle from the folks at Google themselves. You see, November 24’s doodle celebrates the 41st anniversary of the discovery of that world-famous Australopithecus afarensis skeleton quickly nicknamed “Lucy.”
Hi all! Last time we talked about the first part of a new Christianese metaphor making the rounds, “salt and light.” We focused on the “salt” part of the metaphor last time, so today we’ll be looking at the “light” part. The term “light” has long been something Christians claim ownership of in the context of seeing themselves as the shining lamps that light up the dark world. We’re going to talk about the term itself, how I used to see it discussed, and how I see it changing in usage today.
Today we’ll be talking about the increasingly-popular Christianese phrase, “salt and light.” It’s one of those fundagelical concepts that has been creeping around in the background of Christian churches and apologetics for a while now–this idea that churches and Christians alike are supposed to be “salt and light” to the society around them. I didn’t hear the phrase much at all when I was a Christian; like a lot of their other weird ideas, this is a pretty modern one so it might have taken you by surprise too. We’re going to talk about how Christians conceptualize this idea, and then how it actually works out in reality, because this idea is yet another in a long, long line of excuses Christians use to be assholes to people. Knowing about this permission slip helps you see it when it’s deployed against you, and it’s one of those dog-whistle terms that is useful to know when you see Christians slip it into conversation.
While writing about Ben Carson, I realized that it’s been a while since I checked in on the various Christians I’ve discussed here, either on their own or as part of my series about the Cult of “Before” Stories. I thought it’d be fun to see how they’re doing nowadays. Let’s check in on a few of them!
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.
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.
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.