You don’t often see Christians talking about their terror of Hell in their out-loud voices. Usually they at least try to make Christianity sound like a voluntary decision they made out of sheer love for their Savior and Messiah, and they try their best to downplay all that stuff about Read more
To wrap up Love Week, I want to talk about some of the biggest taboos in Christianity: porn consumption and masturbation. I did not masturbate as a Christian. I can’t even claim it was because I was such a true-blue Christian. The embarrassing truth is that I just didn’t know Read more
Just a quick little note about creationism again, because I saw a link you folks would probably dig. We’ve talked here before about “high and low” Christianity–this idea that there is a “high Christianity” full of high-end theology and education, sophisticated arguments and a whole whale of a lot of Read more
Our journey into both love and that happy land of books you really should have read by now and if you haven’t, then you should definitely consider it continues today with The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. In this book, the author plays with narratives about love. He gently teases them, toys with them, and ultimately honors them.
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I got my first taste of Star Wars at a cinema. I remember lines going around the theater and around the block to get in. My mother, correctly, saw that this movie was going to be one of those big cultural things that Read more
This week I’m going to be writing about love. It seems like a good time for it. Let’s kick off with these poems attributed to the Greek poet Sappho. She’s one of the poets I love most. Her work has always spoken so loudly to me. I discovered Sappho in Read more
Well, it’s happened. I have officially hit that age where I want to shake younger people by the shoulders and scream at them not to waste their beautiful, precious, oh-so-finite youth. I can hardly bear to see young people trapped in relationships that make them deeply unhappy, toiling away at Read more
When you’re helpless and at a serious physical disadvantage, your perceptions of potentially challenging situations can get a little skewed. Can you see why I’d see that and think immediately about religion?
If you were wondering what I mean by “Mary Sues” in a roleplaying environment, I give you Exhibit A. These are two attempts a player made to create a character for a Tolkien-based text-based online roleplaying game set in a gorgeous, lush forested area. I’ve changed none of his original Read more
Ken Ham and Bill Nye had a big debate recently. I was of two minds about watching the debate at all. It seemed like such a waste of time. I mean, really: it seems like Christian creationists get a lot more out of these things than the reality-endorsing folks do; Read more