Reading Time: 10 minutes From TheWrap.com comes this story of yet another incident involving Donald Trump and his supporters abusing someone. This story illustrates the rage of right-wing Christians about their rapidly-mounting losses in the public sphere, but also their certain collapse of power. And in the latest little drama-fest he’s provoked by skipping the debate, this seems like a good time to examine that rage and what it is doing to others–and what it demonstrates to us about a religion that is failing fast.
War on Women
Posted inReligion
The Handbook: Generalizations and the Mommy Wars.
Reading Time: 13 minutes We talked last time about a minister’s wife who is convinced she knows exactly how to nail this motherhood thing. I wanted to talk a little more about something in it that we only briefly touched on last time: this idea that we often see in Christians that what works for them will work for […]
Posted inReligion
Shaming a President’s Daughters.
Reading Time: 9 minutes There is no low too low when it comes to the Christian Right. In this case, a fine, upstanding Republican decides to try to shame President Obama’s daughters for “sins” that she herself commits constantly.
Posted inReligion
Why They Lie.
Reading Time: 9 minutes (CN: Religious overreach, movie/book spoilers about Hot Fuzz and Watership Down.) The movie Hot Fuzz had one element in it that really weirded me out. And I’d better not be spoiling this for you: the bad guys in the movie keep repeating, over and over again, that they’re doing what they’re doing “for the greater […]
Posted inReligion
It’s So Romantic.
Reading Time: 10 minutes (CN: Religious abuse, domestic violence, stalking.) Today we’re going to talk about one of the most sickening aspects of modern Christianity: this idea that the Christian god “woos” people by abusing and hurting them. “To woo someone” means to seek the romantic favor of that person. Normally this is done by doing sweet and thoughtful […]
Posted inUncategorized
SCOTUS and Collateral Damage.
Reading Time: 9 minutes (Content notice: Misogyny.) I hadn’t been planning to say much here about the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS ruling. Obviously you know I’m pissed about it; obviously you know I’m dismayed that five Catholic dudes who don’t seem to understand contraception have ruled about women’s access to contraception. Obviously I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg is da bomb […]
Posted inReligion
The Next War for the Christian Right
Reading Time: 15 minutes You might imagine that I get lots of requests to write about various things, but very rarely do so many requests for one specific topic hit my inbox. Today we’ll be talking about that topic: the new war that toxic Christians are waging upon transgender people. Obviously I haven’t talked enough about it, and we’re […]
Posted inReligion
The Sand’s Just Fine.
Reading Time: 10 minutes When Rachel Held Evans wrote her beautifully moving piece in the wake of the World Vision brouhaha, How Evangelicals Won a Culture War And Lost a Generation, it was a cry from the heart: she, like many other evangelicals, has finally seen what outsiders and ex-evangelicals have always known. She might be late to the […]
Posted inReligion
“Billy Did It Too” is Not An Adequate Reason to Misbehave
Reading Time: 14 minutes Sexism is over. Rand Paul said so, so we can all just relax.
Posted inUncategorized
Dancing Bears
Reading Time: 12 minutes Today I want to talk about something I call “dancing bears”–that strange phenomenon you see when somebody who doesn’t really fit in with a group, or who might even be someone that group is actively working to undermine or disenfranchise, is deliberately sought and trotted out to advance that group’s interests and confirm its dominance. […]