Religion in the news this past week? Here are the highlights: *Amish guilty of investment fraud. (Thanks Amish. The dream is over.) *Cheerleader/bodybuilder probably the next Perpetua because she didn’t take steroids. (Apparently, she has “sculpted arms and legs . . . [that] most men would envy”–don’t worry, she is praying that “the Lord” will […]
Lynne Baab is a lecturer and writer on pastoral theology who lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is the author of eight books, including a book on how Christians can and should build online friendships called Friending. Mediation contributor Thomas Turner recently “sat down” with her over email for an online conversation. Thomas: Lynne, it’s […]
For me, it all begin with Jeebus, who was made manifest to the world in the fifteenth episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons. In this episode, titled “Missionary: Impossible,” Homer flees a mob of angry PBS telethon hosts by hopping a cargo plane to hide out as a missionary in Microasia.* Realizing the gravity of his situation, Homer gets on […]
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Acts 17:23 Candida Höfer, Musée du Louvre Paris IX 2005 Candida Höfer’s photography of monumental […]
We can have the assurance that God has a good purpose for every tragic event, writes Greg Boyd, without claiming that God allows every tragic event for a good purpose.
The Academy has done great work over the past few years in expanding the reach of the Oscar-nominated short films; if you live in the right cities, they could be playing in a theater near you, and if not, most of them are available on iTunes and other digital distribution sites. I’ve been watching the […]
In most of these essays, I try to keep a pretense of critical distance. That is, I point out whatever loose sally of thought the movie in question inspires and then proceed from there, without venturing much comment on the quality of the movie itself. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, however, must stand as […]
Like the rapture, creation ex nihilo is an extra-biblical doctrine that a slew of people for a long time have enjoyed writing a lot of books about. I don’t have any objection per se to extra-biblical doctrines (Book of Mormon anyone?) but over the past couple hundred years this particular idea has come to seem like […]
Arrrghhh . . . I miss everything! Had I been privy to this devilish bit of goodness it surely would have made an appearance in The Devil Wears Nada. (If you hate shameless plugs, you’re in the wrong place. Speaking of which: Hey Jeff, I hope you caught this before the ink dried on your […]