The End of AtheismReligion is a problem. Not just fanatical religion, but even, perhaps especially “moderate religion.” That’s Sam Harris’ thesis in his New York Times bestseller, The End of Faith. And Sam Harris is a very angry man.Neuroscientist Harris believes that the only legitimate reading of ancient Western religious texts (Hebrew, Christian and Muslim) … Continue reading
Month: July 2005
The Long Dark Night of the American SoulHe may not have been a terrorist, but he was wearing “a padded coat and cap” in July for God’s sake. And he was a Brazilian electrician, certainly cause for alarm in terror-spooked London. So the cops chased him into a subway station and pumped him full of … Continue reading
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John Brown's Body lies a-mouldering in the GraveEric Rudolph got life in prison yesterday, after pleading guilty to blowing up an Alabama abortion clinic, killing a policeman and gravely injuring eleven other people.Facing the court, Rudolph declared: "I did not target them for who they were but for what they did. My actions that day … Continue reading
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The Worst People in America 1. Michael Moore, filmmaker 2. Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times 3. Ted Kennedy, Democratic U.S. senator, Massachusetts 4. Jesse Jackson, Democratic African-American activist and Christian minister 5. Anthony Romero, American Civil Liberties Union's executive director 6. Jimmy Carter, former Democratic president 7. Margaret Marshall, chief justice, Massachusetts … Continue reading
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Fuzzy LiberalismMy friend Doug, who has served as rational backboard to my wildly thrown rim shots on more than one occasion over the past couple decades wants to know: "What is open source theology? The short definition, please.If it's not biblically based, it won't have any success in blunting the evangelical right. If it's fuzzy, … Continue reading
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The Evangelical ConversionBack during the Reagan administration, when I was going to Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God it was just a little four-year Christian liberal arts school "in the Pentecostal tradition." One of the signs of the decadent-pre-rapture-Laodicean-liberal-mainline church, we were often reminded, was that it preached something called the "social gospel." Real … Continue reading
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Sowing LessonsIt was ten minutes of nine. The in the morning London traffic was snarled as it always is for the last ten minutes of rush hour. There was a more than a bit of joy in the summer air: Britain was had just been picked to host the 2012 Olympic games. By then surely … Continue reading
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Mercy not SacrificeHe sat in the garden, an epistle of St. Paul on his lap. He didn’t even know why he had lugged the book out here. It wasn’t as if he felt a desire to read it. His felt as if a fire burned within him, his very skin tingling with pain. He looked … Continue reading
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A Letter to My StepdaughterEvery parent must sometime deal with rebellion. It may be over quickly with few casualties in the areas of love and mutual trust. Or it may go on for years and lead to estrangement and brokenness. In blended families like mine, the difficult years of teen rebellion are mixed with a … Continue reading
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