“And what you told me about the evils done by Christians—these people were Christians in name only. They disobeyed the word of Christ and they were led astray by the desires of their hearts. The Bible says, ‘The heart of man is deceitful.’ Because of this, you will see no difference between the actions of …
The Dull Pornographer
“Yet literal-mindedness is not honesty or fidelity to truth—far from it. For it is the whole experience of mankind that sexual life is always, and must always be, hidden by veils of varying degrees of opacity, if it is to be humanized into something beyond a mere animal function. What is inherently secretive, that is …
Muddy Water
“These quarrels hinder men’s judgments. If the water is muddy, we cannot see what lies at the bottom” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 276).
Church Sign Smackdown
What if there were a web site that allowed you to generate your own church signs. There is? You could perhaps wind up with a battle of the church signs. HT: Scott Linn
Just Goes to Show
The happy fallout from the NYT article continues. Here is my former undergraduate advisor, Nick Gier, telling the sorry tale of how I squandered the legacy of my UI philosophy degree. First, Gier has clearly opted for a different strategy in his response to this article — some of his fellow Intoleristas have been fit …
Work It Off If You Can
“The offenders must repent before Allah, but Allah decides whether or not to forgive him. On Judgment Day the person will discover whether or not Allah will forgive him . . . In short, Allah alone decides whether a person is forgiven. If he commits a big sin, he is at Allah’s mercy. If he …
When Vice Gets Good Press
“When did we no longer appreciate that to dignify certain modes of behavior, manners, and ways of being with artistic representation was implicitly to glorify and promote them?” (Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It, p. 55).
The Implacable Hatred of Divines
“Contentions cause much perverseness in men’s tongues, and this causes a breach in their spirits. Your contending costs you dearly. Though it were in nothing else, yet the loss of this sweetness of spirit makes it very costly to you. All the wrong that you would have endured if you had not contended would not …
Potoked Again
Reactions to the NYT article were not long in coming. This one comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the world’s richest civil rights organization. Mark Potok, author of this article, was upset that Molly Worthen, author of the NYT piece, wrote a balanced, critical piece when the SPLC clearly sees the crying obligation for …
A New Perspective on Ron Paul
From my comments on this blog thus far, it should have been gathered that I have more than a little sympathy for Ron Paul. I far prefer him to the standard-issue Republican candidate, who would not recognize the Constitution if a copy were to be set on fire on his front lawn. And so I …