Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
If I told you I know would it mean anything?

If I told you I know would it mean anything?

Last updated on: February 22, 2024 at 5:55 pm by Fred Clark

0 Comments

If I told you I know would it mean anything? 2024-02-22T17:55:44-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• Grand Canyon University is the largest Christian university in America, and the worst landlord in Phoenix. And now the school can add one more superlative, facing the largest-ever fine from the Department of Education, which ordered GCU to pay $37.7 million for having “misled students about the cost of its graduate programs.”

Don’t know what kind of conduct is permitted by Grand Canyon’s student handbook, but I guess it doesn’t prohibit displacing 54 families or defrauding grad students.

• I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of Erik Loomis’ “American Graves” series. It’s an idiosyncratic project shaped in part by serendipity and the kind of stumbling across that happens both in graveyards and in archives. He recently featured the grave of one of my favorite actors, Jack Lemmon, who also has one of my all-time favorite tombstones:

“Jack Lemmon in …”

• Historian Randall Balmer writes about the white evangelicalism of his father, an End-Times Rapture fundamentalist of the mid-20th century. (His dad was literally the preacher in A Thief in the Night.) Balmer isn’t writing to praise or even to defend his father’s form of white evangelicalism, just to lament that the dominant, Trump-y version we have today seems so much worse.

Here’s what I think is the most interesting bit: “A part of the answer lies with the eclipse of premillennialism among evangelicals, many of whom still claim to be premillennialists but who act otherwise.”

Premillennialism presumes that the world is going to end very badly, very soon, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it other than try to evangelize as many as you can as fast as you can. This world is not my home. It’s all gonna burn. Lord, come quickly. Etc. Such pessimism and fatalism about the temporal world is consistent with the no-politics and no-social-action faith of Rapture Christians like Balmer’s dad. But it’s impossible to reconcile with the activist, hyper-politicized faith of 21st-century white evangelicals. This is what Balmer means by them claiming to be premillennialists, but acting otherwise.

This can appear more confusing than it actually is if you expect people’s politics to flow out of their theology. It usually works the other way. White evangelicals didn’t become increasingly politically engaged and politicized during the second half of the 20th century because they had shifted from premillennial pessimism to postmillennial optimism. The political engagement and politicization of their faith came first and is only now — slowly and spastically — causing them to reassess their former eschatology.

For now, they’ll still talk about the Rapture, a bit, but their faith and politics are shaped less by supposed biblical prophecies of the Great Tribulation than by supposed prophecies of a Great Replacement.

• “My Son, the Litigious Parody Writer.” Mark Evanier shares “the tale of how one of my idols sorta threatened to sue me when I was barely in my teens.”

The more you learn about a guy like Allen Sherman the more you respect a guy like Weird Al.

• “Maultaschen.” Germany’s version of ravioli was invented by a monk named Brother Jakob who, legend says, needed to “use up an unexpected bounty of meat” during Lent:

Although they abhorred waste, these monks weren’t allowed to eat the meat of four-legged animals, especially during the Catholic fasting period of Lent in the spring. So Brother Jakob minced the meat with herbs and onions and wrapped everything inside pasta dough, hiding the forbidden flesh from the eyes of his fellow monks—and even from the eyes of God.

In Swabia, the region encompassing much of Baden-Württemberg and part of Bavaria where Maultaschen originated, one of the colloquial names for the food references this deception directly: Herrgottsbescheißerle means “little God-cheaters.”

Brother Jakob’s name is a terrific detail in that legend given that the many trickster stories about the biblical Jacob. The Bible also tells us a story about the time Jacob’s grandfather welcomed God for lunch and they dined together, enjoying a very not-kosher meal of, basically, cheeseburgers.

So while I don’t think God is tricked by Herrgottsbescheißerle, I suspect God isn’t offended by them either,

• Elaine MacKenzie is one of the greatest albums of the ’90s and it’s almost invisible online. This non-video video of “I Know, I Know” has lousy audio and barely 600 views. I mean, I personally have needed to hear this song more than 600 times.

Anyway, here’s the source of the title of this post:

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 20, 2024

Four dead in Ohio

Next Post

February 23, 2024 LBCF: The Naked Truth

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Yes. Lemme 'splain.For a lot of kids (12+, chiefly), D&D is one of the first ..."

Jim Roberts

The possibility of possibility

"My favorite, being a New York City resident, is the way the wingnuts screeched "Liberals ..."

WeWantPie

The possibility of possibility

"Question for the DnDers hereOver on PITT Parents they had a lengthy paranoid rambling about ..."

Skybison

The possibility of possibility

"Possibility of possibilities... Can we have some of that over here in the UK, please?"

MG Remoaner

The possibility of possibility

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What year did Martin Luther post his 95 Theses?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1517 1492 1600 1401