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Hell 101: A Back-to-School Reflection on the Persistence of Belief in Eternal Punishment

By Hollis Phelps

…ial, though often disavowed, supplement to grace: even though salvation is free one must still work hard to run the race well. It’s easy to be dismissive of such beliefs, to chalk them up to superstition. But such simplistic dismissals aren’t very helpful or interesting in the long run. I’m sure there are many reasons why hell lingers in the religious imaginary, and belief in hell is certainly overdetermined. But what I find interesting is the way…

ACLU and Thomas More Law Center Rush to Terry Jones Defense

By Lauri Lebo

…t Amendment has any meaning, it is that the government cannot suppress the free speech because it — or anyone else — disagrees with the speech.” The Thomas More Law Center has pledged to file a suit on Jones’ behalf. By the way, I’ve seen TMLC in action. Its lawyers defended the Dover school board in Kitzmiller v Dover. If Jones has any brains at all – and I’m not saying he does – he’ll get on the phone to the ACLU right now, begging its attorneys…

Christianity’s Greatest Counterfeit

By Willie James Jennings

…tle to do with the worship of a marginalized Jew, named Jesus, who came to free the poor and oppressed. This counterfeit Christian community worships power, desires control, and imagines the world revolving around self-sufficient men (and a few women). I call it “Mad Man Religion.” Mad Man Religion looks just like Christianity. It connects religious practices to free market practices like you would connect pieces from a Lego set. And it offers to…

Is America Willing to Be Freed from Its Demons?

By Willie James Jennings

…s our enemies, and the latter constructs a false sense of independence and freedom.” I don’t know if we Americans, especially Christians in America, want to be freed from our demons. The late New Testament scholar Walter Wink defined the demonic as an array of human and supra-human forces aligned to destroy life. The demonic was both individual and structural, personal and collective, sentient and mechanical. Wink’s expansive way of writing about…

Burma’s Spirit Festival, and More in This Week’s Global LGBT Roundup

By Peter Montgomery

…o gay rights activists last year after imposing a sanction on the U.S. Episcopal Church following its ordination and marriage of LGBT people. The Episcopal Church was banned from representation on key bodies and barred from voting on issues relating to doctrine or strategy for three years. But the sanction drew dismay among Liberal Anglicans. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, lamented that the ban brought pain to those who h…

“I Had No Intention to Write Atheistically”: Darwin, God, and the 2500-Year History of the Debate

By Edward J. Larson

…ntury English social philosopher Herbert Spencer, already an evolutionist, freely worked Darwinian materialism into his progressivist philosophy of social development, which was dubbed Social Darwinism by its critics. Haeckel carried these ideas to the German-speaking world, with translated editions of his most popular books returning back to Britain to reinforce Social Darwinism in its homeland. As social theorists, Spencer, Haeckel, and Darwin b…

Global LGBT Recap: Religious Leaders Support Persecution as Countries Vie in Homophobia Olympics

By Peter Montgomery

…critical moment. Chissano ended his letter quoting Nelson Mandela: “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Russia: Putin Tells Gays to ‘Leave Kids Alone’ But Arrests Rainbow Flag-Waving Teen As the Olympics approach, the biggest concern of Russian officials may not be international opposition to the country’s anti-gay laws but the threat of terrorism related to on…

How Far Will White Christians Go to Maintain Power? An Interview with Robert Jones

By Peter Laarman

…hristian and non-white peoples they “encounter.” It declares that they are free to conquer by any means necessary and with the full blessing of God, church, and king. And of course the idea here was that the benefits of bringing “civilization” to the New World, and Christianizing it, could outweigh any of the atrocities committed along the way. So that’s colonial Christianity, and we are still dealing with the legacy of that today. We are still in…

God’s Obituary: A Humanist Response to Mass Murder

By Anthony B. Pinn

…r in this world without cosmic aid that can protect us from us. Appeals to free will (as my comments are bound to generate) might not be a limitation God imposes on God’s self. It may simply be a weak way of saying we are in control, or what the late William R. Jones—philosopher of religion—called the “functional ultimacy” of human activity in the world. These profound moments of tragedy slowly kill God, making it so difficult, if not useless, to…

Persecution, Betrayal, and the Zero Sum Fight for Global Domination — Day 1 of NatCon 2024

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…woke authorities” in Brussels, when a local mayor tried to shut them down. Free of these “left wing authorities” who tried to “ban our organization” DeMuth declared “I’m delighted that now, back in the USA, authorities have made no effort to stop us, either by lawfare or violence,” then adding, to the delight of the audience, “but, given ‘defund the police’ I’m not sure they could.” In fact, NatCon in Brussels would become almost a mythical event…