--snip--

Houser’s violence was not abstract. He set out to kill women in the audience for an Amy Schumer movie. His lethal violence was an expression of his contempt for and distrust of women.

And that misogyny cannot be abstracted or diagnosed away from the anti-woman ideology he learned in his community, his culture, and, yes, in his church.

I’m not talking about his Southern Baptist church’s opposition to women’s ordination or its blasphemous “complementarian” theology of male supremacy, although that’s also part of it. But it’s possible to remain a Southern Baptist in mostly good standing while somewhat questioning that official required “stance” on the role of women in the church or the role of wives in marriage.

I’m talking about the more fundamental teaching — the paramount religious and ethical teaching of that denomination, which says that women cannot and must not be trusted. Rusty Houser was shaped by a faith tradition that does not abide any question or challenge to its official required stance of legal and political opposition to abortion.

Rusty Houser was shaped by a politicized religious community that routinely compares American women to Nazis and accuses them of killing “unborn babies” and thus being to blame for 9/11. Women, this central principle insists, cannot be trusted with their own sexuality or their own bodies. This is the fundamental fact it teaches about women: they are untrustworthy and irresponsible and morally inferior.

Houser embraced the premise of that teaching and — like Paul Hill and Scott Roeder — he took it all to heart. Now, as with Hill and Roeder, his actions are being dismissed as an aberration — the consequences of his mental illness rather than the consequences of the ideology instructed and required by his church.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/07/27/rusty-houser-hated-women-he-learned-that-at-church/

A quick thinking school bus driver prevents armed terrorists from doing “God’s will” and attacking students and teachers at an elementary school in Macon County, NC.

Earlier this week Adam Conley, 38, and Kathryn Jeter, 29, both heavily armed, were arrested on the South Macon Elementary School grounds. When asked why they were at the school with loaded guns the suspects said it was “God’s will.”

When asked what they would do if children and teachers had shown up, they said that “if it would have been God’s will for us to shoot the children” they would have shot them.

However, quick thinking school bus driver Alice Bradley prevented what could have been a horrific tragedy. In a press conference Friday, Macon County Sheriff Robert Holland praised Bradley for preventing a potential bloodbath.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/06/bus-driver-saves-students-from-armed-terrorists-doing-gods-will/

Little children ought to learn all the teachings Jesus taught about in the Bible. 1/6th of everything Jesus taught about was on judgment and hell. That is a huge amount of teaching on the subject! But how do we teach our children such a hard biblical idea appropriately?

Jesus said to Israel’s teacher, Nicodemas, in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This is not exclusive for adults, it applies to everyone every conceived under Adam’s original sin. From the moment of conception, we have all gone astray under Adam’s original transgression. But how do we communicate this to children?

In this tastefully illustrated work that is completely in rhyme, the Bible’s teaching about hell is outlined in a very easy to understand manner. It is aimed at children 5 to 9 years old, but can certainly be read by any age. It concerns a young boy who we find is trapped in a cage called “Big Sin” and can’t escape on his own. The cage is suspended by a chain that is rusting and could break at any moment. What will our young friend do? What is he thinking about as he stands there locked away? He sees others in cages as well, some who don’t escape, and some who jump to safety as their prisons doors are opened by a mysterious key. Will our young friend get out? How will he escape THE CAGE?

C. Matthew McMahon, Ph.D., Th.D., is an American Calvinist Reformed theologian and adjunct professor at Whitefield Theological Seminary. He is the founder and chairman of A Puritan’s Mind, the largest Reformed website on the internet for students of the Bible concerning Reformed Theology, the Puritans and Covenant Theology. He is also the founder of Puritan Publications which publishes rare Reformed and Puritan works from the 17th century.

http://www.puritanshop.com/shop/the-cage-a-young-children%E2%80%99s-guide-to-the-biblical-teaching-on-hell-c-matthew-mcmahon-childrens-book/

Social media is abuzz with a story from The Lapine which reports:

“More than 100,000 paperback-edition Gideon Bibles have arrived in Nepal to provide relief for the millions of Nepalese desperate for help following the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has struck the country.”

Now if you don’t know, The Lapine is a satirical website, so their stuff should always be read skeptically. The ironic part of the story (and what makes for good sarcasm) is that it is not that unbelievable. Things like this have been done numerous times.

Curious as to the truth, I spoke to a representative of Gideons International this morning and was told that the organization does continually ship Bibles all across the world. However, they send them on container ships, not planes.

Concerning Nepal specifically, I was told that they had their own printing operations within the country, and that they had printed 200,000 copies of the Bible in December. Therefore, I need not worry, the Gideons in Nepal had plenty of Bibles to hand out to the victims.

It’s too bad the Gideons don’t have sandwich making facilities in Nepal.

Join me in making an actual difference in the lives of the victims of the Nepal earthquake. Donate to The Foundation Beyond Belief’s disaster recovery drive.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/brotherrichard/2015/04/the-gideons-did-not-rush-bibles-to-nepal-they-were-already-there/

The Pope has personally met with France’s proposed ambassador to the Vatican – to tell him his appointment will be blocked because he is gay.

The French government has refused to back down after selecting openly gay diplomat Laurent Stefanini to head to the home of the Catholic Church – which remains actively opposed to LGBT rights.

However, the Vatican has snubbed the country’s selection of ambassador – refusing to answer the nomination in a bid to get it withdrawn.

Pope Francis, who as the head of the Catholic Church is the sovereign of Vatican City, met with Mr Stefanini this week to personally reject him.

According to Reuters, the Pontiff met with the diplomat to tell him that he will not be allowed to become the country’s diplomat, because of his sexuality. Mr Stefanini is single, but the Pope also reportedly raised concerns about same-sex marriage.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/04/24/pope-personally-rejects-frances-gay-ambassador-to-the-vatican/

Michael Gove’s right, of course. It is time these words appeared somewhere in the Guardian, and his defence of Christianity in the Spectator provides an excellent opportunity. Christianity, he says, is now regarded in England with condescension or dismissal when not with active hostility. To say that you are a Christian is “to declare yourself intolerant, naive, superstitious and backward”.

This is obviously true, as anyone who reads the comments here knows. Muslims are undoubtedly less popular and more reviled than Christians, but it is a safe general assumption that anyone who claims their actions are informed by Christian principles will be assumed to be arguing from false premises and self-interest veiled by self-deception. If there is any moral reasoning involved, as Gove says, Christian belief is considered an actively disabling factor.

“Where once politicians who were considering matters of life and death might have been thought to be helped in their decision-making by Christian thinking – by reflecting on the tradition of Augustine and Aquinas, by applying the subtle tests of just-war doctrine – now Christianity means the banal morality of the fairy tale and genuflection before a sky pixie’s simplicities,” writes Gove.

--snip--

But the real problem is the slow drift of religion into a category separate from the rest of life and thought. Religions that work have nothing to do with faith: they are about habit and practice, and the things that everybody knows. Gove quotes the Book of Common Prayer, which I also was brought up on, and love deeply. But it’s gone now. It will never again be a book of common prayer. The more that any religion becomes distinct from the culture around it, the weaker and weirder it becomes. Of course it can flourish as an embattled and angry sect. But Christianity in England has not been like that for at least 1,000 years. Seventy years ago, TS Eliot could write that dogs and horses were part of English religion, as much as bishops were part of English culture.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/02/michael-gove-christianity-detached-british-culture