Dinosaurs in church? We’re for that
Photos by Andrea Tintori. The small inset box is not in the correct location; it should be under the rail on the far right side. The measuring rod and the fossil itself are visible in the larger photo. The image was taken from discovery.com; this is obviously not Mr. Tintori’s mistake A small-town cathedral in [...]
One day, no religion (also: no church-sponsored orphanages, food banks, hospitals, homeless shelters, etc.?)
Scott Brown, founder of the One Day, No Religion campaign, explains his brainchild via YouTube This is interesting. Scott Brown, of the band doublethink, has started a campaign called One Day, No Religion. The idea, so far as I can tell, is to get those people who are on the religion-atheism fence to Just Say [...]
Peace, with teeth
John and Yoko de-fanging peace. Amsterdam, March 1969. What a joke. I love Lennon’s music, but this “bed-in” was just a goofy publicity stunt, and it probably did as much as any other event to make peace the vapid and empty word it is today. Image source: time.com We say we want peace, but in [...]
Some Baptists just can’t keep their heads
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Salome with the Head of the Baptist c. 1609. Source: caravaggio-foundation.org In the last month a friend of mine at church has sent me some interesting stories provided by the Associated Baptist Press. Both have to do with statements made by faculty and administration of the once-great Southern Baptist Theological Seminary [...]
Queen of the Damned quits Christianity. One asks, why not?
Anne Rice by I Am Second. She was a Christian, now she’s not The news is a few weeks old, I guess, and maybe I need to get out more. But just this week it has come to my attention that Anne Rice, most famously the author of many dark and popular vampire tales, has [...]
Deserve’s got nothing to do with it
“I’ve always been lucky when it comes to killing folks.” William Munny’s resolve breaks at the end of Unforgiven as he goes on a brutal killing spree. The myth of redemptive violence lives on in the greatest of Anti-Westerns (making it, perhaps, the first Anti-Anti-Western). On Sunday my family and I (and my sister’s family) [...]
Quick! Gird up your loins! Defend the faith! Ok, but I have a few questions first
A jaunty scene of one of the Church’s crusades in which it “defended itself” against the Muslims. If you know who painted this, or if its copyright is expired, or anything else about it, please let me know. In the meantime, click on the image for a really great post about Christian-Muslim relations at shrinkthechurch.com [...]
The Body of Christ, shattered again
Hans Holbein the Younger, The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, 1522 Wieuca Road Baptist Church, the church that raised me and loved me without reserve, is laid out in its tomb. Once again the Body of Christ has been broken by anger, mistrust, and fear. Once again we humble ourselves and beg [...]
Let’s all die together
I am preaching this weekend. My text is Acts 9.36-42, in which the Apostle Peter revives Tabitha from death. So I’m going to talk about death in the middle of the Easter season. Death, you know, is a prerequisite for resurrection. It is not incidental to it, nor is it avoidable. If we are to [...]
