Theology That Bites Back
Dear visionaries, In our discussions, we have to beware of racism inflation. In contemporary public discourse, such charges are too readily leveled as the all-purpose trump card. Why don’t we agree to reserve it for those who believe and affirm that one race is (racially) superior to another? With this more precise definition, it would …
Morning, everybody. Tim Bartnick asks two reasonable questions. The first is that if folks locally can discount what Johnson says and does, then why do we need to defend ourselves against him? First, the answer is that we do not have to. The point was not to defend against Johnson’s charges, but rather to point …
Dear visionaries, First, lest there be any more misunderstanding, I will do my level best to have this post be simple and straight, no goofing around. Humor works by means of startling incongruity (although there are mysteries beyond even this). Thus, when I and Christ Church were accused of racism, I undertook to defend our …
Morning, visionaries, We have to be careful lest a love-fest break out here, but I would like to thank Angie for coveting my tag line, and for saying publicly that in her view I am not an anti-Semite. She says also that if I were to display any of those tendencies she would hop on …
Visionaries, Secular fundamentalists like Duane really crack me up. Evil? What’s that? And when Duane accused me of anti-Semitism, I confessed to you all earlier that I was nonplussed. I was like a congressman who had found a copy of the Constitution. I honestly did not know what he was talking about. But when I …
Dear visionaries, My faults are many and grievous. But I am not guilty of all vices, and one of the places where I do just fine is in not taking offense when someone “pokes fun.” If you stick your head through the canvas in the booth at the county fair, you can’t act surprised when …
Dear visionaries, It really is good to hear from Susannah from time to time, because it inspires me to write. But she might want to remember the comment of P. G. Wodehouse concerning folks like me. Some minds are like the soup in a poor restaurant — better left unstirred. She says, for example, that …
Visionaries, I am sure that part of this is an ethos problem. If I said it, it must be outlandish and subversive of the republic. But nobody in this quarter said anything about medals for bravery or heroism. I believe that men such as this are wicked, and those who do not die in their …
Visionaries, Jon said, “Attacking the defenseless is, without any doubt, absolute cowardice.” The problem here is that those doing this are kamikaze types. They are not just killing the defenseless, they are surrendering their own lives in order to be able to do so. I call it wicked, and cruel, and lots of others things. …
Visionaries, Would someone please tell the State Department to stop denouncing homicide/suicide bombers as cowardly? They are lots of wicked things, but being cowards is not one of them. Cordially, Douglas “Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local …
