5 Lessons Learned from the Apocalypse Fail, Or, It’s Not the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel So-So

[via Religion Dispatches]

(Un) Resolved? :)



[via Tales of Mere Existence]

Lying about Santa: The Irrelevance of Proof to the Holiday Spirit

[via Religion Dispatches]

The Star Wars Holiday Special "Changed" Christmas forever (enjoy it here, if you dare!) Will it do it to Hannukah?

Complexity of Valentine's Day

With all the attention given today to the bicentennial birthdays of Darwin and Lincoln, it's easy to forget that this is also Valentine's Weekend. In today's edition of Sightings Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago writes about the complexities of Valentines Day in India -- and it's effect on women. Of course, western expressions of sexuality and religion have, over the years, effected views there. So, take a read: {continue...}

[via Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

"Is The Meaning Lost?"

Halloween? Reformation? Which is it?

[vika Kevin Powell]

And If It Was The Other Way?

A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.

Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong". {continue...}

[HT: The Wittenburg Door]

Yes, Virginia, there is a St. Nicholas

[via GetReligion]

Feasting On Thanksgiving

[via slacktivist]

'Why have we feasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?

 Why have we humbled ourselves,

 and you have not noticed?'

 Yet on the day of your feasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

Your feasting ends in quarreling and strife,

 and in striking each other with wicked fists.

 You cannot feast as you do today

 and expect your voice to be heard on high. {continued}

Hollow Graves...

At Halloween our modern cultural rituals are a dim reflection of the historical practice of connecting with and honoring those who have come before. We lost the true meaning, but keep the trappings in hopes that we can connect in some way to something bigger than ourselves. We bring out the ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, and black cats not understanding what they mean, but longing nonetheless to grasp hold of a fleeting glimpse of the mysterious. We watch horror movies in hopes that fear, as raw and intense of an emotion as it is, will at least make us feel something beyond ourselves. But these things still remain trappings of a world in which we don't fully believe.

Trappings of a world in which we do not believe....

I do not fear Halloween because I only see a hollow artifice without roots (not that I fear those roots, but that's another story). But I do fear Christianity when it is a hollow artifice. Trapping of a world in which we do not believe can be dangerous.

[via onehandclapping]

Why Christians should take Richard Dawkins seriously

[via The Heresy]

But Where's The Conspiracy?

Knights Templar win heresy reprieve after 700 years

[HT: ThinkChristian.NET]

Reminders of the Jews

Just in time for Yom Kippur...{continue...}

[via The Wittenburg Blog]

It's never too soon for the blame game.

[via Tales of the Bitter Rose]

Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton and Religious Liberty

[via Mainstream Baptist]

On Washing Feet–Liturgical Stepchild

[via Levellers]

Ten Propositions on Certainty and Theology

[via Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

Headings...

Biblical Mandate: Wife Must Give Head

[via daydreamer]