Gore Vidal has come out with a ringing defense of Roman Polanski — he says the 13-year-old recipient of Polanski’s attentions (back in the day) was a hooker. And this makes everything better . . . how exactly? Polanski hired a 13-year-old hooker? And then drugs her? Most men who hire prostitutes just pay them …
Protesting Too Much
In my earlier post on Porn as Liturgical Corruption, I described a process whereby a minister who has a private problem with porn makes more and more room for his own compromises in his preaching. This is of course one response, but there are others. One commenter asked about such a man, one whose opposition …
Porn as Liturgical Corruption
This is just a short sketch of something that requires much fuller treatment. On top of that, this is a statement about just one aspect of this problem, and not an attempt to minimize the other problems that might be in play. Pastors are usually husbands as well, and this means that when a pastor …
Bottle Blondisity
Modern evangelicalism is a day-old doughnut, but this may require further explanation. We flatter ourselves by saying that evangelicalism is over here doing its thing, and American culture is over there marching to a different drummer entirely. If we are convicted by our sins and inconsistencies, we like to think that they are self-contained sins …
Just Plain Greasy
There is something different about these latest examples of sexual hypocrisy. We are used to sexual shenanigans, and we are used to people lying to cover them up. We are also used to the double standard — if a Republican congressman were to do to a fetching staffer what a Democratic congressman does to a …
Triangles Don’t Have Outliers
In a previous thread Jane Dunsworth asked the question when it comes to all questions of “reading culture.” How do you tell the difference between some manifestation of lowlife culture and that same thing (apparently) adopted and carried out by someone whose respectability is beyond question? Hmmm? The problem is the same regardless of how …
Night Shift at the Flying J
So let’s talk about nose rings for a minute. In our recent discussion of tattoos, the nose ring question developed into a significant sideshow, and so a few specific words should be addressed in this direction as well. The first thing to point out (and which I have pointed out elsewhere) is that nose rings …
Exquisite Thrill
To pick one of Calvin & Hobbes many high points, I would recall the time when Calvin was industriously pounding nails into the coffee table. His mother comes tearing up to him, screaming, “What do you think you’re doing?!” He looks and her and looks at the table and says, “Is this a trick question?” …
Vampire Guilt
Just a few more comments on the vampire deal. First, everything in this fallen created order “answers to” something unfallen, with the possible exception of hyenas. In other words, the dragon is the archtypical emblem of sly, crafty, rebellion — and this goes back to the Garden. Satan is that ancient dragon. If we read …
Vampires With Self-Control
Yesterday in my sermon I mentioned in passing some of the problems with Christians allowing their kids to “get into” the Twilight series. Since this is an outrageous eruption of inexplicable legalism on my part, I thought I ought to defend it. Here is a brief four point discussion starter, and perhaps there will be …