Stuff About Things

Don't poke the bear

Thank you, Internets!

To think of it as news requires a staggering narcissism, something like the opposite of empathy wherein Other People, those who are Not Us, somehow cease to exist or to live when we are not directly interacting with them.

Maybe the ultimate example of this sleight-of-hand tactic is his pastoral letter on Referendum 74, Washington’s referendum on marriage equality, in which [Archbishop-designate Cupich] bizarrely urged voters to reject the 'redefinition of marriage' by spending much of the letter praising the compassion and conviction that motivates gay-marriage advocates. The result he desires, of course, is still the same: second-class status and ongoing stigma for same-sex partners.

I know I say this all the time, but no public school is teaching (nor should they) that students should stop believing in God. Removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance keeps things neutral, while reciting the phrase 'One nation, under no God' would be advocating atheism. There’s a difference. Bald isn't a hair color, off isn't a TV channel, and neutrality isn't the promotion of atheism.

Charisma needs to take this column down, apologize and repent. And everyone there who touched this — solicited it, approved it, failed to resign in protest over the idea of it — needs to be fired. Twice.

I wasn't put off by the movie simply because it celebrated the Evangelical variety of the Christian faith, for that's my own cultural heritage; I know it like I know the back of my own hand. And I wasn't put off simply because the quality of the writing and directing was so very bad (although, believe me, it was). What upset me most was how routinely terrible they made the atheists in the movie, and how badly they misrepresented a people group which the makers of the movie clearly have never tried to understand.