Right-wing news outlet Newsmax reported Nov. 7 that, in reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama predicted the city will be “completely Muslim in three or four years.” I’m sure…
JD Vance has an odd way with words
In a video podcast with a crucifix-wearing host, Vice President JD Vance discusses his faith and views on immigration policy. Along the way, this happens: VANCE: “So, I would talk to constituents in Springfield, Ohio. This was when I was…
Struggling for words these days
What’s a four-letter word that means feces? Dung. What’s a four-letter word for something many people love to do with a partner multiple times per month? Golf. Thus, if you need to instruct someone to hit a manure ball with…
Trump’s poop-bomb video shows us what his base wants
I recently witnessed, in the course of a few hours, a stunning contrast between three presidents. First, our nation’s current president shared an AI video depicting himself as a crown-wearing fighter pilot who bombs No Kings Day protesters with liquified…
Is Christian nationalists’ use of Romans 13 kinky or perverted?
A pastor praying outside an ICE facility in Chicago gets shot in the head by a pepper pellet and collapses to the ground in pain. Commentators dispute whether the protesters had been warned to leave, although currently circulating videos don’t…
Cancel church for ice and snow, not ICE and shootings
Mass shootings will outnumber snowstorms this year. That sentence hurts to write; may it haunt us. The decision to cancel church for inclement weather involves the complex interaction of values — safety vs. commitment; feelings — fear of injury vs….
7 things to do to oppose MAGA authoritarianism
“Time heals all wounds.” That’s the most galactically stupid saying in the English language. It’s like saying, “Time hits all baseballs.” While it takes time for a baseball to get from mound to plate, time doesn’t hit the ball. We…
How not to be a ‘brood of vipers’
“We have to stop demonizing people by calling them whitewashed tombs and vipers.” That might have been a quote in the AD 30 Jerusalem News when a scribe or Pharisee complained about the language Jesus used to describe them. But…
No, MAGA supporters aren’t the same as Nazis
We humans love dichotomies. For example, when we meet someone, our brains tend to classify the person as masculine/feminine, taller/shorter, etc. Of course, false dichotomies abound. While a woman is either pregnant or not, a person can have both masculine…
Sydney Sweeney, great jeans, the Bible and hell
Ukrainians continue to be blown to bits by Russian bombs. Palestinian children continue to starve amidst a genocide. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” Gasp. In case you’ve been living under a Dwayne Johnson, a controversy…
ICE, Gaza and the threat of stupid Jesus
“They killed the boy.” That was the explanation a Bible professor once gave me for why Jesus wasn’t a good model of leadership. The Christian scholar had been describing how, many years before, a subordinate had proposed holding a pastor’s…
These teachers taught me how to do nothing
My undergraduate Baptist college adviser was looking over his glasses at me as I prattled on and on about all I was doing. In my final semester, I was taking 18 hours in an attempt to pull a final-semester 4.0…