This so needs to be in your UU sanctuary, don’t you think?

A dramatic, pendant lampshade, shaped into a classic image of guilt and morality. From a distance, The Fall of the Damned appears to be an organic and intricately textured ornament. Upon closer inspection it is revealed as a mass of naked bodies, reminiscent of Dante and Rubens, fused together in agonizing beauty.

Only $45,000! I hope your pledge drive is going well.

(Hat tip to Walter.)

Former Georgia Senator, who is not running for office, recently speechified, “Take this disastrous war and this disastrous economy and give the Republicans a colonoscopy.”

Nope. Not running for office. Not against Vern Jordan for the Dem nod for Senate. And not against Sonny Purdue for Georgia governor either.

I’m hoping some you wise souls might know some good web-based systems for volunteer management.

We’re looking to do a gifts inventory early next year, and my hope is that there is a cheap-to-free way to do that online so that we won’t need a team of people do key in hundreds of persons’ data, one by one. And then to distribute that data to folks for follow-up. Open source software is ideal, but anything that does the job is great.

Any leads?

For those interested in Evangelicalism, there’s a groovy discussion of where it’s at and where it’s going at Café Theology. It’s a good fly-on-the-wall read of several evangelical academics worrying and wondering about the direction of their movement. (Hat tip to Tall Skinny Kiwi.)

I found the discussion, in a word, confusing. I came out of it knowing less about Evangelicalism than I knew going in. I learned, in turns, that
Evangelicalism is a white North American subculture like so many others, a Reformed tradition unchanged for centuries, an assent of belief in terms that every non-evangelical Christian also believes in—the “good news,” a “high regard for the Bible,” conversion, and, well, Jesus—and a sinner in the hands of an angry God.

And it’s Evangelical sin that I want to focus on. But not like you think I will. Click to continue reading “How Evangelicalism gets in the way of being evangelical”

Michael Scherer in a recent Salon article puts it right out there:

Amid all the fury and fireworks, she must convince Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and the nation that she is worth all the trouble, all the backbiting, the claims and counterclaims that she cannot control.

That’s exactly the question Dem primary voters should be asking. Do they want another year of conversations about Hillary, followed by another four to eight more? And “conversations” is putting quite generously.

What would that do to our politics? Hillary aside, what does the all the bullshit about Hillary do to us? And what will years more of it do? At the end of that era, will we have a politics we’ll be proud of?

Very, very odd. Alt head: “What do you get when you cross Tom Cruise with Billy Graham?”

Kennedy knew that before he could introduce any Scientology-related text to his congregation, he would have to prove that it did not contradict his Christian beliefs. And so, he found Scripture to match each of the 21 principles.

Now Kennedy uses “The Way to Happiness” as a how-to supplement to his sermons. He believes it is easier to understand and clearer to follow than ancient Scriptures taken from the Bible.

When asked whether Scientology’s values contradict the religion of Jesus Christ, Kennedy replies, “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.” But he says his congregation can relate to “The Way to Happiness.”

(Hat tip to Kinsi.)