Roy Clements was a leading figure within the UK evangelical Christian movement for more than two decades until he resigned from his pastoral ministry in 1999 after the revelation that he is gay. For a time after this revelation, Clements received lots of correspondence from Christians, including his old friend, the ...
Read MoreHow to produce your own web marketing video on a budget
So, your product or service is ready and on-point, and you have a website. Now, you’d like to market yourself effectively and you’ve heard web video marketing is the way to reach your audience. Let’s talk about how best to do it on a tight budget! Producing an effective video ...
Read More7 things that constantly happen when you talk on the radio for a living
On my 12th birthday, my parents arranged a surprise visit to a really big radio station. I got to sit in with a host I’d listened to for years, be on the mic with him, talk to the producers on the other side of the glass and watch the whole ...
Read MoreThanks for stopping those happy ending massages
Dear Oro Valley Police Department, I’m not a resident of Oro Valley, Arizona, but I do pass through from time to time and I’d just like to express my thanks for two recent arrests that have put my mind at ease as an occasional visitor to your area. Yesterday, after ...
Read MoreFor 2014, I resolve to be alone more
I’m not too cool for New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, I already have a couple of boringly normal and very traditional ones in mind for 2014, like eating healthier and working out. (January 1st seems like an ideal time to do this psychologically, especially coming after the decadent holidays at ...
Read MoreWhy this libertarian remains open-minded about Obamacare
We already have a health care system that resembles a kind of centrist soup. With Obamacare, the exact proportions may be different, but the soup’s ingredients remain exactly the same. ‘Obamacare’, aka the Affordable Care Act, is now under implementation. It passed all three branches of the federal government including ...
Read MoreThe Problem of Suffering made easy
Explaining the classic problem with a simple analogy Let’s say you’re passing by a bathroom door and you happen to look in and see a young child fall and slip under the water. Nobody else is around. What should you do? You’d probably reply that you should run in and ...
Read MoreDistracted driving
A California court says the old ban on mobile phones while driving also applies to the newer things phones can do, including helping someone navigate to their destination using a maps / turn-by-turn directions app. Time for a legal overhaul for the 21st century. But, even more fundamentally than that, ...
Read More10 reasons I don’t believe in Hell
Do you believe in Hell? If so, and if you’re from the Christian tradition like me, you probably believe it’s a place you go when you die to be punished for things you did while alive. A fiery place of torture worse than any you can imagine. Suffering ...
Read MoreA friendly response to Piers Morgan on gun control
Homicides are down while gun ownership is up, rampages are not increasing, and gun laws don’t seem to have changed any homicide rates we can look at. So why are we so obsessed with gun control? ——— Do you believe in science? I do. I believe that truth can be ...
Read MoreDon’t blame radio entertainers for nurse’s death
Death and comedy rarely mix. In the aftermath of a tragic event, we lose our collective sense of humor. Even among jovial, fun-loving people, if someone’s prank appears to lead to someone else’s tragedy, we sober up fast. But the apparent suicide of a nurse after she was pranked by ...
Read MoreMy tattoo
I had the words Cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am) inked beside a geometric circle on my left upper arm. The two elements stand apart but in relation to each other (like a satellite in orbit). What’s it’s meaning? Well… René Descartes’ Discourse on the Method was the first ...
Read More“Massacre” at Todd Bentley revival in Norway
Satire “A bloodbath” is how one Norwegian pastor described the scene at a Christian event featuring controversial U.S. preacher Todd Bentley. Bentley’s visit to Norway this week started off innocently enough. But it wasn’t long before the fears of many over the violence of his ministry were realised. Bentley, who ...
Read MoreOf Councils and Gods
“Keep your prayer in the closet!” – Jesus Christ This week’s meeting of the Town of Quartzsite Council has an item on its agenda that piqued my interest: “Discussion of letter received from the Freedom from Religious Foundation [sic] and possible action to replace prayer with a moment of silence ...
Read MoreOut for blood: Why calm heads must prevail
In the wake of what may be the worst mass shooting in U.S. history (by number of people injured or killed), it is perhaps not surprising that people want blood. But before I even woke up this morning, I had messages from people anticipating my response to this tragedy. They ...
Read MoreWhy gay marriage isn’t the first time we’ve rethought the ‘purpose’ of marriage
The following things have all been opposed by the Christian church at various times and to various degrees throughout history. But aside from that important fact, can anybody tell me what they all have in common? • The rhythm method • Oral sex • The birth control pill • Anal ...
Read MoreThe World According to Genesis
How some things in the bible only make sense if you understand the cosmology of the writers Look straight up at the sky. The top of that huge, beautiful crystalline dome extends out in all directions and then meets the horizon, where it is propped up by mountains and the ...
Read MoreWhy Republicans can’t complain about Obamacare
Or: Why it doesn’t matter who you vote for in November Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney says if you don’t want President Obama’s sweeping health care reforms, then he’s your man in November. There are several big problems with that (see below), but he is right about one thing: people ...
Read MoreIs America the greatest country in the world?
The premiere episode of Aaron Sorkin’s new drama series The Newsroom (HBO) opens with a real bang. It does so by sacrificing a sacred cow held by many Americans: the belief that the United States is ‘the greatest country in the world’. This idea is so commonplace as to be ...
Read MoreIs 21 years in prison enough for murder?
“Well that’s where I’m going if I want to kill a bunch of people: Norway!” Those were the sentiments I heard this morning, a day after Norwegian anti-Islamic fanatic Anders Behring Breivik appeared in court to explain why he killed 77 people last summer (he said he was doing his ...
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