I know that some of you all have been following this, but in case you haven’t, let me try to bring you up to speed. Last week Bryan Loritts posted on my book Black & Tan, and you can read him here. In the course of responding to my book, he also associated me with …
All in the Original Hebrew
One of the concerns that has been raised about moi, as Miss Piggy might say, is that I might be racially insensitive. That is actually a serious concern, which I hope to address seriously later, but I do need to acknowledge at the front end that there are some senses and some ways in which …
What? 2013 Already?
A good question arose in the comments of my previous post, and I thought an adequate reply to it needed some room to spread out. It is a great question, and it illustrates why this discussion is not equivalent to an irrelevant attempt to get a do-over of some ancient battle or other. This whole …
With a Bit of Menthol
As everyone knows by now, one of my very favorite activities is defending myself against charges of racism and/or racial insensitivity on the Internet. I have decided that this will be periodically necessary, at least until I die, but I attribute this more to cosmic forces than to any nefarious plot on the part of …
Whiter Than Gehazi’s Knees
A friend has let know that he has heard a report that I have some sympathies for “separation of the races” and that I hold to the “inferiority of minorities.” I address this question in Black & Tan, which Canon is still selling on Kindle for 99 cents here. The report is a falsehood top …
Chick-fil-A and the Attack of the Tyrannatots
The outlines of the latest Free Speech Clown Car Review are pretty familiar by now. Dan Cathy, the COO of Chick-fil-A, was asked his opinion on homosexual marriage, and he, being a good Christian man, said he was agin it. This should not have been an astonishment, for it has pretty much been the mainstream …
That Jailbird Paul
I have been trying to break down how the politics of outrage work. One of the more baffling aspects of this tactic is how effective it is, despite the fact that the hypocrisy of them is so naked and out there. Why do people applaud a magician, all of whose cables, lines, and trapdoors are …
History as Rebekah’s Womb
I need to start with a story that is not entirely relevant, although one part of it is. When I was in the Navy, I had occasion to deal with some devotees of an uber-dispensational Bible teacher named R.B. Thieme. That’s another story, with lots of juicy bits that came later. Another time maybe. At …
How the Marble Always Rolls
Years ago, when I was in college, the prof in some class or other had us watch a documentary film recording somebody’s suicide. They didn’t show that part on camera, but the whole thing was a “situation ethics” kind of thing, where the person had been diagnosed with a terminal (and painful) disease that he …
Pride and White Privilege
One of the good things about controversy is that it makes you answer questions you wouldn’t otherwise address, and it sometimes make you answer uncomfortable ones. And despite the fact that Anthony Bradley shouldn’t have done such a lame thing, and shouldn’t still be doing it, we are still expected to turn a spiritual profit …