I Love You Kenisha. My dear sweet Kenisha,
If you find this page, please forgive me for my failure to be a the kind of leader in our marriage and our home that God has called me to be.
When ever you decide to come home, I'll be here waiting for you. If I'm 100 years old, and on my death bed, and you haven't come back yet, I'll still be waiting for you!!! I love you with all my heart!!!
posted by jonson
on Feb 11, 2007 -
125 comments
While the standard King James Bible remains huge business for publishers, in recent years a number of alternative formats have sprung up, hoping to capture the niche Christian dollar, or more charitably, to spread the good word to an audience that wouldn't find the tradtional bible all that relevant.
Daniel Radosh's piece in the New Yorker examines the alterna-Bible publishing phenomenon, along with a
great slideshow of several in-market concepts.
posted by jonson
on Dec 13, 2006 -
16 comments
Bill O'Reilly respondsYouTube to a
8 year oldYouTube (though he leaves out her saying "that idiot O'Reilly"). Bill and his "expert"
Wendy Murphy (who claims that the ACLU supports child sex abuse) agree that the girl's performance is child abuse - "the ultimate inhumane treatment of a child". Murphy goes on to highlight the danger possibility of "some [religious] nut [who] wants to hunt this family down." The
many comments at YouTube illustrate this point – while some are supportive, others call her a slut, and Tanzman6
(who has belonged to Right to Life and Peer Ministry clubs) says
"This little chink should shut the fuck up. We should have killed her parents in Viet Nam when we had the fucking chance. Burn the bitch."
While the child obviously had help with her material, is O'Reilly right that statements like "religion has caused the genocide of nations" is propaganda about which she understands nothing? Even after considering that she is Lakota (Sioux) and probably related to Greg Zephier, an American Indian Movement Leader?
[most material taken from Jesus's General]
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts
on Dec 7, 2006 -
100 comments
At a certain age, young people get seemingly uncontrollable urges. But, in accordance with God's plan, these
urges must be controlled.
posted by punkfloyd
on Nov 9, 2006 -
27 comments
The Smithsonian's Sackler gallery opened a unique and wide-ranging
new exhibit yesterday featuring fragments of Bibles from before the year 1000.
"
Most of the manuscripts have never been seen outside the countries where they are stored. [Some Smithsonian-owned documents in the exhibition] have never been exhibited and two have not been shown since 1978." Fragments of the
Codex Sinaiticus are included in the exhibit.
Along with the
archaeological interest, these fragments can pose theological and historical challenges for Christians. Some, like UNC's Bart Ehrman, have
lost their faith as a result of studying early Bibles; some, like Luke Timothy Johnson of Emory, believing that Christianity is about a
common cultural and spiritual experience, are unmoved by the "
corruptions" and
differences in the New Testament over time; other Christians try to
refute (MeFi link) claims that the text has changed.
posted by ibmcginty
on Oct 22, 2006 -
36 comments
the American God? The herders of this remote mountain village know little about America, but have learned from those who run a US-funded aid program about the American God. A Christian God. ...
posted by amberglow
on Oct 11, 2006 -
32 comments
Book22 is named after the 22nd book of the Bible,
Song of Solomon. Apparently, it's also a great place for married couples to pick up their intimate items. And, also an opportunity to
share the gospel. Note that these are links to an online sex toy shop, NSFW, though safer than most online sex toy shops.
posted by Roger Dodger
on Aug 21, 2006 -
22 comments
"The Naked Truth" This
Google Video is a documentary (pack a lunch, it's nearly two hours long) that systematically eviscerates the purported origins of the Old and New Testaments. Turns out, it's really all about astrology. Who knew?
The evidence is tremendously compelling, well documented, and sure to raise the ire of people whose minds are made up on the subject.
posted by wordswinker
on Jul 4, 2006 -
45 comments
Auden and Christianity "The notion that religious faith and serious thought are mutually exclusive categories always struck Auden as risible and unintelligible. But he would have bristled at an effort to separate out his religious beliefs and restate them as systematic propositions, or examine them independently or thematically, rather than see them as players in his rich and various inner symbolic drama."
posted by vronsky
on May 26, 2006 -
3 comments
Do you ever get the calling to witness to atheists but don't respond because you don't know how to start? Have you ever tried, but got pulled around from one point to the next spending hours getting nowhere? Are you just too chicken to do it? Well fret no more - help is here!
The Chat-O-Matic is specifically designed to get you started on the right foot when debating skeptics on the Christian faith. It will also help you obey Jesus' command in not throwing your pearls before swine.
(An Atheist Witnessing Tool for the rest of us)
posted by youarenothere
on May 1, 2006 -
88 comments
"
Killing the Buddha is about finding a way to be religious when we're all so self-conscious and self-absorbed. Knowing more than ever about ourselves and the way the world works, we gain nothing through nostalgia for a time when belief was simple, and even less from insisting that now is such a time.
Killing the Buddha will ask, How can we be religious without leaving part of ourselves at the church or temple door? How can we love God when we know it doesn't matter if we do? Call it God for the godless. Call it the search for a God we can believe in: A God that will not be an embarrassment in twelve-thousand years. A God we can talk about without qualifications." I particularly enjoyed
The Temptation of Belief, by a Buddhist exploring evangelical Christianity, and
My Holy Ghost People, by an unbelieving daughter in a praying-in-tongues family.
posted by heatherann
on Apr 24, 2006 -
21 comments
Jesus walked on the water ice. So sayeth... um... well, this guy at Florida State.
Doron Nof has released a
paper positing that when Jesus walked on the water in Galilee, he was actually walking on a patch of floating ice. What's interesting about science like this to me is that it both validates and invalidates scripture, since if Jesus was walking on ice... no miracle (although, it's a miracle he didn't slip and fall, har har har). But if Jesus was walking on ice, then at least he historically existed, which
is still an open question at least
in some quarters. In case you think you recognize Mr. Nof's name, you may be remembering his work explaining that the
parting of the Red Sea was totally possible (flash video link).
posted by illovich
on Apr 5, 2006 -
106 comments
The Mercy Seat. Described in the book of Exodus, the throne of mercy has quite a variety of meanings. Some contemporary Christians are interested in "
reconstructing" an image based on Egyptian and Phoenician culture. In Judaism, the
kisei rachamim is part of the narrative of Yom Kippur, as God moves from the seat of justice to the seat of compassion. In medieval Europe, and especially in Germany, the
Gnadenstuhl was a perfect
representation of the trinity, combining the cruxification, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (usually a bird), into one image of mournful compassion. Nick Cave used the idea of the mercy seat as the frame for
a song about murder, sin, capital punishment, and atonement/redemption, which was later covered by Johnny Cash (
mp3 clip). The chair of mercy is even visually alluded to Jodorowsky's
Montana Sacra, aka
Holy Mountain.
(Which have been inspired in part by the Ascended Masters of Mount Shasta, but that's technically another story - the bizarro California cultists story.)
posted by jann
on Mar 3, 2006 -
25 comments
The Other Christian Activists "Any Christian who believes that homosexuality is a more important issue than justice for the poor just hasn't read his Bible straight." - David Hilfiker
"If you are waiting for a religious left to emerge to offset the power of the religious right, it may already be in your own neighborhood at a local church or synagogue." - Ira Chernus
posted by quonsar
on Mar 1, 2006 -
33 comments
One in five Americans consider themselves "holy", according to a recent poll by the Barna Research Group.
posted by bcveen
on Feb 24, 2006 -
52 comments
Oprheus, is said to be the
founder of
The Orphic Mysteries, or
Orphism.
While in school most students are taught the
Theogony of Hesiod, but as in most religions, a differing account existed:
The Orphic Theogony, summarized somewhat in this short
video (
nsfw? abstract nudity). The
Orphic Reform to the
Dionysian Mysteries included vegetarianism, abstention from sex, and restraint from eating eggs and beans — which came to be known as the
Orphikos bios, or "Orphic way of life".
Initiation into the
Mystery school was needed to teach the
Road to the Lower World, through
Bone Tablets and
papyrus remnants of Orphic
Hymns. The Orphic Mystery has been seen as very similar to
other
religions.
(
scroll about 2/3 down the page or search for Orphics).
posted by ozomatli
on Feb 17, 2006 -
7 comments
xFamily Values. A collaborative work by former members documenting
The Family/
Children of God religion/cult. Uniquely reflecting the
sexual revolution, they encouraged
prostitution as a means of gaining
converts and
offerings (
Flirty Fishing).
Plus they had
comic books for the
kids. But in concordance with other cults,
abuse,
incest,
mind-control,
secrecy,
charismatic leaders and
leaderettes,
insanity, and
irreparable harm were in
full swing. (No more inside. There may be PDFs involved. Please note that much of this material is not safe for work, or anywhere else.)
posted by cytherea
on Feb 10, 2006 -
34 comments
Interpreting Revelation's "Millenium." Outside of the all-too-virulent
rapture-crazy pre-tribulational dispensationalist premillenialism permeating JesusLand, some Christians hold to other, more nuanced eschatological alternatives. You've got
historic post-tribulational premillenialism, which places the transformation of the faithful at the final judgment rather than before it;
amillenialism, which regards Christ's "millenial" reign as a symbolic spiritual reign culminating in the last judgment; and
postmillenialism, which sees the millenium as a gradual progression towards goodness and light. Overlapping those, you have the "it's all been fulfilled"
preterists, and their prophecy-party-pooping compatriots, the
hyper-preterists. It's a debate just slightly more fun than
the end of the universe. Meanwhile, the
noncanonical apocalypses sit in a corner, sadly ignored, and
sunny Megiddo is still waiting for some end times
action.
posted by brownpau
on Feb 1, 2006 -
76 comments
Five Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong. From the magazine "Christianity Today", David P. Gushee, a professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, is against torture. Period. No exceptions. Complete with Bible verses to prove it.
posted by willmize
on Jan 27, 2006 -
42 comments
Breaking the Science-Atheism Bond. "When I was growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the 1960s, I came to the view that God was an infantile illusion, suitable for the elderly, the intellectually feeble, and the fraudulently religious."
posted by brownpau
on Jan 24, 2006 -
160 comments
The Beast is coming. Director Brian Flemming prepares to bring to the silver screen what might be the most controversial film of the year (if not all time). The cast and crew are all sworn to secrecy regarding the film's actual content, and the central premise easily explains why:
What if there was a massive conspiracy in the Christian Church to conceal the fact that Jesus Christ never existed?
posted by deusdiabolus
on Jan 6, 2006 -
74 comments
"A Helpful Hand" - Penn & Teller call
Bullshit! on the "bestselling book in the world," the Holy Bible.
(link is to entire episode approx 29mins - *language, flash)
posted by hypersloth
on Dec 14, 2005 -
120 comments
"If God does not exist, and if religion is an illusion that the majority of men cannot live without...let men believe in the lies of religion since they cannot do without them, and let then a handful of sages, who know the truth and can live with it, keep it among themselves. Men are then divided into the wise and the foolish, the philosophers and the common men, and atheism becomes a guarded, esoteric doctrine--for if the illusions of religion were to be discredited, there is no telling with what madness men would be seized, with what uncontrollable anguish."
posted by empath
on Dec 6, 2005 -
75 comments
Faith based prisons... Can Gov. Jeb Bush's new drive to introduce God to the inmates make a difference, or was Jesus 'dying for our sins' not enough already? Is Jesus a solution or an excuse?
"Night has fallen. He has died now.
A fly crawls over the still flesh.
Of what use is it to me that this man suffered,
If I am suffering now?" -
Jorge Luis Borges
posted by 0bvious
on Nov 25, 2005 -
36 comments
Thanksgiving sucks. The English went on setting fire to wigwams of the village. They burned village after village to the ground. As one of the leading theologians of his day, Dr. Cotton Mather put it: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day." And Cotton Mather, clutching his bible, spurred the English to slaughter more Indians in the name of Christianity.
posted by j-urb
on Nov 24, 2005 -
55 comments
