The United Methodist Church (Bush’s religion of choice) took a stance the past weekend: United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a declaration of peace urging President Bush to pull U.S. troops out of the country. The Declaration of Peace, signed Sept. 21, is described as a … Read More
Thanks, But Can You See How That Doesn’t Help?
New York Times, 9/25/06: Col. Tom James, who commands the division’s Second Brigade, acknowledged that his unit’s equipment levels had fallen so low that it now had no tanks or other armored vehicles to use in training and that his soldiers were rated as largely untrained in attack and defense. The enormous strains on equipment and personnel, because of longer-than-expected … Read More
Jim Wallis vs. Ralph Reed
Jim Wallis, author of the book God’s Politics, has a new blog discussing, well, religion and politics. Wallis is often thought of as a "liberal Christian", but that would be an inaccurate charactorization. The theme of Wallis’s book is quite simple: God belongs to no single political party and true faith transcends political categorization. This week, Wallis is having an … Read More
And I Say “A Pox On Both Their Houses”
Let’s summarize: The Pope trotted out a 14th-century insult of Islam: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman" He issued one of those fake apologies, where you say you regret that people were upset, instead of saying you were wrong and feel bad about your words or deeds … Read More
IRS Hassling Pastor For Giving Anti-War Sermon
The War on Christianisty indeed: This is just unbelievable. The IRS is suddenly ramping up its investigation of whether All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena violated its tax-exempt status with an anti-war sermon just before the 2004 elections. On Friday an IRS investigator served a summons on the current rector, Rev. Ed Bacon, ordering the church to turn over all … Read More
“What’s God Like?” And Other Things
There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the recently released Baylor Religious Survey. This is supposedly the most extensive survey of religious attitudes in America. Specifically, the data examines such questions as: • Just how religious is America?• Do religious Americans favor any political party?• How do religious Americans feel about the Iraq war?• How does religious belief affect spending … Read More
Jesus Camp
This documentary-for-theatrical-release is creating a lot of buzz. The trailer looks interesting, if not disturbing. RELATED: A rather scary website: The Christian Guide To Small Arms, which includes such gems as: The most useful arm to the Christian warrior is probably the rifle or the carbine. A rifle is a long arm with a rifled (grooved) barrel chambered for a … Read More
Darwin Award Nominee
Oh, my: A PRIEST has died after trying to demonstrate how Jesus walked on water. Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle. But he drowned after walking out to sea from a beach in the capital Libreville in Gabon, west Africa. One eyewitness said: "He told churchgoers he’d had a revelation that if … Read More
The Ten Commandments As The Basis Of Our Law?
Rep. Katherine Harris, the Republican who oversaw the Florida Presidential elections in 2000, and who is now seeking office herself (and failing badly): Asked whether the U.S. should be a secular country, Harris said: "I think that our laws, I mean, I look at how the law originated, even from Moses, the 10 Commandments. And I don’t believe, that uh … Read More
Jesus Loves Mrs. Turner’s Baby More Than Yours
We’ve delighted in the appearances of Jeebus and the Blessed Virgin Mary in pasta dishes, burnt toast, tree trunks, water stains, drywall, grilled chess sandwiches, potato chips, and dripped chocolate. Now, He’s showing up . . . in a womb. Here’s the ultrasound of Laura Turner of Warwickshire, England: Now, with all due respect to Mrs. Turner, it’s great that … Read More
Christian Coalition Is Disintegrating
About time, too: Aug 23, 2006 (AP)— Three disgruntled state affiliates have severed ties with the Christian Coalition of America, one of the nation’s most powerful conservative groups during the 1990s but now buffeted by complaints over finances, leadership and its plans to veer into nontraditional policy areas. *** The coalition, which claims more than 2 million members, was founded … Read More
The Prayer Antenna
Just in case God has bad reception: Yes, it’s real. Here’s the description from the inventor: The Prayer Antenna is part of a series of Religious Technological Artifacts that I am making. The Antenna receives signals from God (yes, your God). The Antenna currently takes the form of a surplus / thrift-store motor-cycle helmet (or similar) that is ornately ordained … Read More
Bo Dietl On Islam
I actually worked with Bo Dietl on several occasions (back when I was doing law in New York), and while he is a great private investigator, he is as dumb as a doornail when it comes to politics and, well, everything else. From Think Progress: Today on Fox News’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, private investigator Bo Dietl argued that … Read More
Old Testament Parenting
I suppose people with kids will find this funnier than I did, and I thought it was pretty funny: ‘Lamentations of the Father’ [An excerpt]by Ian Frazier Laws Pertaining to Dessert For we judge between the plate that is unclean and the plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean, then you shall have dessert. But of … Read More
Reconciling Evangelicalism And Science
You have to click through Salon’s annoying "ad", but this article is very worthwhile. It’s an interview with Francis Collins, the former head of the Human Genome Project (which attempts to map the DNA of humans). A man of science and a former atheist, Collins discusses his religious views. He seems to sit comfortably within both realms, although to do … Read More