Now Where Have I Seen This Before? Coincidence?

Well Done Rhode Island!

I have to say I’m a confused by the contradiction between two posts by Jim West who, only a day or two ago, scolded a school for having a song which praises Allah and who just today threw on the mask of persecution because a school had to take down a Christian prayer banner.   And [...]

An Explanation of Religious Freedom

Listen, people of Earth: religious freedom does not mean you get to take rights away from, or continually deny rights to, other people so you can continue to freely subjugate, oppress, or objectify them because your religious beliefs say you must.  In other words, if you think ‘religious freedom’ means that you have the freedom [...]

Why Does Santorum Say Crazy Things?

Politics and Religion in the Biblioblogosphere (The Quick Edition)

James McGrath talks about Newt’s comment about building a ‘Moon Base’ and how it relates to religion and Science Fiction. We all share Bob Cargill’s frustration over Santorum’s recent claim that there is only 4,000 years of human history.  Santorum (third on the list), of course, one of the GOP candidates for the presidential race, [...]

Review of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Discovery Center

 Where: Discovery Center – New York  When: January 8, 2012  Overall Impression of the Exhibit: Brief Introduction to the Exhibit: Today I traveled to New York to see the much-acclaimed Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Discovery Center (just off Times Square).  This is one of those exhibits I’ve been looking forward to seeing since [...]

When Does ‘Rhetoric’ Become a ‘Threat’?

When this happens: Upon hearing the news, Laurene Pierce (President of the College Republicans at University of Texas) thought it would be hilarious to tweet that people shouldn’t shoot Obama, “as tempting as it may be.” (Source) This is scary.  And many of my (sane) Republican friends have been quick to label this individual as [...]

Stop Forcing Ancient Figures to Fit your Ideological Perspectives

There is a word for trying to force false theological meanings upon ancient texts; it’s call eisegesis.  So when you tie a figure like Jesus to a political or ideological message, you’re committing the same error.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a Tea Party supporter who believes in a pro-war, white-majority Jesus or  you’re a [...]

Most Republicans are Creationists and Climate Change Deniers…Why?

A recent article on MSNBC drew attention to a long-recognized issue these days: conservatives are conservatives in faith and political issues alike, and it is rather odd.  This phenomena is pretty obvious to anyone watching the news over the past five years. First, let me be clear that I have no quarrels at all with [...]

‘Doing’ History in Light of Memes and Cultural Memory Both Ancient and Modern

A recent article by Paul V.M. Flesher on Bible and Interpretation was posted on cultural memory a few days ago, and it was while I was in the process of writing this post, so I thought I might incorporate it into this discussion.  Here is a snippet and a relevant definition of ‘cultural memory’ and [...]