Looking for an appropriate Christmas gift for your Christian friends? You can’t go wrong with a copy of What He Said, of course. Or, perhaps your friend would enjoy a custom Denver Broncos jersey. It’s got Tim Tebow’s number, but someone else’s name on the back. Reaction has been strong on sides:
“Sports is one thing, and Jesus is another thing,” Traci Yown, a mom Christmas shopping for her son told the network. “I like to have their names, their last names on the jerseys. I’m a Christian, but I mean I wouldn’t want people going around having Jesus on the back of their jerseys.”
But Rev. Marcus Buckley of a Baptist Church in Greer, S.C., believes those who speak out against such public displays of religion are haters.
“To me it just shows a cultural bias against Christ and Christianity,” Rev. Buckley said.
Given that much of the wrath of the OWS crowd seems directed at the too-big-to-fail banks whose executives seem to bring home the bacon regardless of market conditions, I’m guessing that Jesus might just be among the protesters.
The alternative is to return to the subversive teachings of Christ. Jesus showed little patience with religious institutions. He was mostly concerned with people outside them. One of the central events of his life was a famous piece of direct action in the Jerusalem Temple, where he “overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves”.
The above block was pulled from a story about the Occupy London movement and how St. Paul’s cathedral fears the protest is keeping the tourists away.
When I was growing up, science was all the rage. Rockets going to the moon, pictures flying through the air (TV), plastics, it was all so cool and happening so fast. About 10-15 years ago, science started taking it on the chin. Dumb became cool, and the eggheads became “elite.” All the answers of the world, it was argued, could be found in the Bible, so why are you wasting your time on quantum physics?
Plus, people seem to love when scientists get it wrong. See? See? I told you those eggheads were worthless. But as Richard Feynman explains, scientists have always been in the process of discovery. They learn new things which puts past lessons in a whole new perspective. It even makes some of those past lessons downright wrong. Which is kind of the most awesome thing about discovery.
If Harold Camping is correct and the world does end tomorrow, do you think it could happen before my son’s minors Little League game? I wouldn’t mind skipping yet another 2.5 hours watching the kids mindlessly heave the ball all over creation. Then again, Mr. Camping apparently miscalculated in his earlier date of September 6, 1994, so maybe he confused sine and cosine again.
But, if indeed his calculator gave him the right date and this is the last post of our blog, I thought it best to go out with a laugh. Take it away, Onion:
Personally, I don’t mind all that much when songs have profanity in their lyrics–as long as kids aren’t listening to them. Cee Lo’s “F*&^ You” from late last year is a perfect example. It’s ridiculously catchy and the profanity, to me, is more comic than offensive. But, realizing he could widen his market by removing the naughtiness, he recorded “Forget You” with Gwyneth Paltrow. Still catchy, but it lost a bit (or all) of its punch.
If that version was still too much for you, check out GMDOCNICE’s video below. WARNING: you will have to suffer through a 1:20 setup that Christians will definitely not like. But, like I said, it’s a setup for the “Bless You” song to follow.
Happy New Year, everyone. I love this time of year. You start a fresh new calendar, and everything seems possible. Resolutions are made and, hopefully, the soil is loose enough for them to take root. New goals to achieve, personal records to break, and new persons (kinder? more patient and tolerant? more willing to help?) to become.
Leave it to people like Marie Exley and Harold Camping to burst my bubble. Based on Camping’s reading of the Bible, they and the rest of Family Radio Worldwide are convinced that the Judgement Day is soon to be upon us:
“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment.” – Harold Camping
Believers will go to heaven on that day, and the rest of us will be left down here on Earth in torment until October when the leaves change the end of time comes.
An investor in Bible.com is suing the company for failing to become a profitable business. Roy Spencer “Bud” Miller, an Arizona minister, bought the domain back in 1996 for $50, and set up shop to “run the site for a sacred purpose.”
All that sounds nice and Jesus-like. Except that the company then accepted investors and wrote a business plan that included the line:
“It is the goal of the board of directors of Bible.com to become very, very profitable.”
Ooops. James Solakian, the suing investor, owns 28% of the company and despite the whole camel-needle thing, has a legitimate beef. Heck, the domain name alone must be worth millions.
When I first came across this story, I thought it might be a hoax so I did some more research and found other coverage here and here. I guess the only logical conclusion is that there was literally nothing else to write about over the weekend in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Or maybe the Pope was away on vacation?
Regardless, The Vatican claimed Homer Simpson as one of their own. This is what they had to say:
“Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic…[The Simpsons is] among the few TV programs for children in which the Christian faith, religion, and the question of God are recurring themes.”
Yes, they certainly are recurring themes on the show. Maybe they should have consulted Ned Flanders first? Here’s one of Homer’s quotes from the show:
“Lisa, if the Bible has taught us nothing else – and it hasn’t – it’s that girls should stick to girl’s sports, such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing and such and such.”
Among the 28 projects Comedy Central is considering to develop into programs for the coming season is an animated series about Jesus. The network’s blurb sums up the show thusly:
“A half-hour animated show about JC (Jesus Christ) wanting to escape his father’s enormous shadow and to live life in NYC as a regular guy. A lot has changed in 2000 years and he is the ultimate fish out of water. Meanwhile his all-powerful yet apathetic father would rather be playing video games than listening to JC recount his life in the city. JC is a playful take on religion and society with a sprinkle of dumb.”
A coalition led by Citizens Against Religious Bigotry (CARB) has yet to see the non-existent show, but has already come out against it. The coalition also includes the Media Research Center, the Family Research Council, the Catholic League, the Parents Television Council and the American Alliance of Jews and Christians. In urging advertisers to boycott any such project, the group said:
“After we reveal the vile and offensive nature of Comedy Central’s previous characterizations of Jesus Christ and God the Father, we expect these advertisers to agree wholeheartedly to end their advertising on Comedy Central and discontinue their support for unabashed, anti-Christian discrimination.” – Brent Bozell, president of the MRC.
Looking for an appropriate Christmas gift for your Christian friends? You can’t go wrong with a copy of What He Said, of course. Or, perhaps your friend would enjoy a custom Denver Broncos jersey. It’s got Tim Tebow’s number, but someone else’s name on the back. Reaction has been strong on sides:
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