My Mailbag: Come Away With Me

In which I am alleged to have pissed all over someone’s life-sustaining memories. 

Why, No! No, It Doesn’t At All!

Dear Dayton Church of the Brethren,

Hello, I am your neighbor. I live not far from your church, which sits on the main road in to our small town. I drive by your building multiple times a day. I see your billboards (both of them; one in front of the church, and this one which sits behind the church along the main highway that borders our town). 

Tornadoes and Prayer

Well, Pat Robertson’s at it again, apparently. With regard to the killer tornadoes that ravaged the midwest this last week, Pat said on his show;

Ric Alba – Homosexuality, The Church and Christian Music

It’s been a busy week at the intersection of religion and our bedrooms – a very busy week. The Culture Wars are back it seems.  Washington State lawmakers passed a bill allowing same sex marriage.  Earlier in the week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California’s Proposition 8 which bans same sex marriage was unconstitutional, upholding a lower court’s ruling, and almost guaranteeing a trip to the Supreme Court. Rick Santorum, has made a platform of social conservatism and believes that the health of our economy and the very future of our country is threatened by the decline of marriage but rabidly opposes gay marriage and contraception. He won all three of the Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota caucuses.

Sin and Responsibility

Add yet another false dichotomy and violation of Occam’s Razor to the popular religious discourse. In the article Why Americans Dismiss Sin, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie decries the idea that sin is largely absent from  the public dialogue.  He lists a number of reasons why he thinks this is the case, concluding that “Our culture pushes us to cast aside responsibility and to find others to blame.” He is pretty firm on this, concluding his article thus: