David and Saul coming to a small screen near you

Tomorrow night at 8/7 central NBC will premier the new drama "Kings." According to the website:

"Kings" is a contemporary re-telling of the timeless tale of David and Goliath. This series is an epic story of greed and power, war and romance, forbidden loves and secret alliances -- and a young hero who rises to power in a modern-day kingdom.

But judging from the trailer, it looks like the show focuses on David and Saul's relationship rather than David's defeat of Goliath, but that story is probably less familiar to general audiences.

"I don't think you can get equality out of the Bible."

Today in Salon, Kathryn Joyce shares the story of Vykie Garrison, a former Quiverfull devotee, who left the movement after suffering abuse and exhaustion.

For Garrison, taking the Bible seriously is synonymous with the punishing claims of the Quiverfull movement. But having lost her faith in the Bible-proofed patriarchy principles she was taught, Garrison is unable to accept any of it anymore. "I don't think you can get equality out of the Bible. You can't get away from hierarchy, strictly defined roles for gender, authoritarianism, submission, dominating." Many believers might take issue with that, but to devout believers of Quiverfull, patriarchy is simply "the logical conclusion of what Scripture teaches," Garrison says.

Did Reagan try to convert Gorbachev?

"The eternal optimist, Reagan was convinced that Gorbachev was capable of changing the Soviet system, and he thought the key to such a turnaround might be religion."

I am late on James Mann's essay in the Wall Street Journal, but it captures American's dream of spiritual salvation as a means to political salvation.

"Hate" in the non-biblical sense

"We say, 'hate,' but not in the Biblical sense, more like a loathing, a sense of disgust and jealousy. These women bring out our worst feelings and many times unjustifiably so."

-Madeline Holler, of Babble.com, explaining the sentiment behind their list of "50 Moms We Love To Hate."

Steele's Bible Fail

"Chairman Steele, as the leader of America's Pro-Life conservative party, needs to re-read the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the 2008 GOP Platform. He then needs to get to work -- or get out of the way," - Kenneth Blackwell, who, unlike Michael Steele, did not receive the RNC Chairmanship.

Blackwell was responding to Steele's interview with GQ magazine in which he expressed moderate views on gay marriage and abortion:

How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by the fact that you were adopted?
Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that—I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it… Uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

Explain that.
The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.

Finally tonight, Jesus...

He's everywhere and the media is all over it:



"We don't make this up, we just report it."

Lost confidence in the Bible will lead to Evangelical collapse

Reports Michael Spencer of the Christian Science Monitor:

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Here is Spencer's reasoning:
1. Evangelicals have believed in causes more than a faith.
2. The younger generation has no orthodoxy; they do not know why they should obey scripture.
3. Churches are fragile, dying, or money-driven.
4. Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.
5. The good the Evangelicals want to do will be seen as bad by many.
6. Evangelicals find themselves unable to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.
7. Money will dry up.

Tony Perkins would disagree on the last point: "If the economy continues downward, more people will be looking upward."
So would Will Donohue: "When people feel threatened--either through national security or economic crisis, such as we are experiencing now--they begin to rethink some things."

Or, if trends continue, the next generation won't be giving up evangelism, they will be giving up religion. Dare I say that the problem may not be with its public image, but with its basic precepts?

“They like carpenters. It’s plumbers they hate.”

Coulter on why the news media compares Obama to Jesus

But the important thing was he used a Bible

Reports Brietbart:

A pastor shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman's four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said.

Clearly "Police: Ill. pastor deflected gunshots with a Bible" was the take-away headline for this incident. Matt Drudge agreed.