Lords of Business, Gods of Rape
Everyday you’re bound to hear someone make an asinine comment or say something vilely stupid, but no one does so with the hubris and particular grace of today’s GOP candidates – especially when talking about rape. They excel at the absurd, exclaiming such inanities as exemplary of exceptional leadership, valor, and public policy; these are [...]
Congregation Defends Pastor’s Call to Torture and Kill ‘Queers’
The bigoted, bloated, vile pastor of Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina, Charles Worley, is proof that you can get away with saying and doing the most heinous things if you just claim it’s in your holy book. In fact, like Worley, anyone who wants to shackle their leadership to a religious intolerance may be able to [...]
Lifetree Cafe: The Rise of Atheism
Earth tones of tan and green, dark wood tables, the fragrant welcoming of coffee and cupcakes, such familiarities would lead any unsuspecting being to jam a knuckle in their eye to wipe away the crusty residue of sleep and prod any recollection of deliberately entering a Starbucks. But where is the barista with the flat-ironed [...]
30 Renowned Writers Speak Disbelief in God
Writers such as José Saramago, Margret Atwood, Phillip Roth, Ken Follet, Arthur Miller, Ian McEwan, Phillip Pullman, Salman Rushdie and more speak about God and their disbelief. Ian McEwan: If you have a sacred text that tells you how the world began, or what your relationship is between this “Sky God” and you, it does curtail [...]
Video: Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011
The day Christopher Hitchens passed away I received a considerable amount of calls and emails offering condolences. It was a bit odd considering that I never knew the man though, admittedly, I do have an entire shelf dedicated to his work. That said, the internet has been flooded with people both mourning his death and taking the opportunity to bash him [...]
Can’t Hide Yo’ Wife, Can’t Hide Yo’ Kids From… Rapture Week!
It’s rapture week and Jesus is coming for you! This Saturday, May 21st is the moment we’ve all been waiting for: THE RAPTURE! Saved Christians will be swept away, the dead will rise from the ground, and erroneous warnings of impending doom will finally come to an end. ( Impending Doom is also an apocalyptic Christian [...]
Canonizing the Corpse
Pope John Paul the second was shot on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City. He was swiftly taken to AgostinoGemelli University Polyclinic for medical attention. Upon arrival the skilled physicians initiated five hours of emergency intestinal surgery, which required transfusions and a temporary colostomy. Once stabilized, he decreed that he [...]
Haggard’s Heuristics
Colorado Springs, CO –- As Pastor Ted Haggard embraced me a broad smile stretched across his face. With a New Year blessing he welcomed me to his recently founded fellowship, St. James Church. Conversation amidst the nearly three-hundred parishioners was filling the cafeteria at Timberview Middle School as Haggard and his wife Gayle greeted everyone [...]
Who was Jesus? Town Church Pt 2
A few weeks ago pastor Nate Downey of Eureka’s Town Church sent me an MP3 of a sermon he did entitled “Jesus is: Deity.” The lecture began tersely with a rhetorical question, “who is Jesus?” Considering there are over 33,000 Christian denominations in practice today, the answer to the question varies greatly from church to [...]
Too Young for New Age
Hunkering towards Eureka’s First United Methodist Church the encompassing bluster of wind and precipitation deracinated me from my surroundings. For several blocks I could only make out silhouettes of parked cars and a distant shimmer of light pelting the gray sky from behind stained glass windows. Once at the steps of the church I quickly [...]
Deity and the Feast (Town Church pt 1)
Several months ago I received a text from a friend informing me that, if interested, I should contact an up and coming pastor named Nate Downey because he’s trying to find someone of contrasting belief systems, perhaps someone without belief, to converse with. At the time Nate was leading a particularly hectic life attempting to [...]
Oh my Goodness!
I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been [...]
Lifehouse
Lifehouse (perhaps a moniker in honor of the grating band of the same name, though I’m not sure) is located behind CVS in Arcata. From what I gathered from parishioners the church building used to have low ceilings, crusty walls, and altogether poor structure. Now, through several years of volunteer work, the place has been [...]
Shepherd’s Pie
Photo from Cardelli’s Myspace page Ever seen a house engulfed in flames? The first thing most bystanders stumbling upon such a tragedy instinctively mutter is, “I hope everyone got out ok.” Whether or not there are casualties, as specks of ash float upwards through the cardinal and tangerine tented vapor, one can’t help but be [...]
