End-timers, those who yearn for the end of the world when Jesus will return and destroy all the evildoers and save the virtuous (and such people are convinced that they will be among the saved), are continuously on the lookout for signs of the impending apocalypse. One of those signs is the arrival of the anti-Christ and it is said that he will have the ‘mark of the beast’ that according to chapter 13 of that wacky Book of Revelation will have the numerical value of 666. [Read more…]

NPR had an interesting story on the controversy in France as that country’s legislature moves ahead on its plans to legalize same-sex marriage and allow adoption by same-sex couples. While the changes have support in the urban areas, the rural areas are more hostile, especially to the adoption provision, which is an interesting reversal of the situation in the US where same-sex adoption has become accepted. [Read more…]

The Church of Scientology has been in the news recently (see here and here) with the publication of Lawrence’s Wright’s book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief that exposes the seamy underbelly of the organization and its cruel and despotic leader David Miscavige. [Read more…]

In a bizarre case that happened in our neck of the woods, the leader of a breakaway Amish sect was found guilty of getting his family members and followers to forcibly enter the homes of those whom he considered enemies and shearing their hair and beards in October 2011. Hair and beards have religious significance for the Amish. “The hair and beard cuttings are meant to be degrading and insulting to the men, according to Amish experts. Once married, Amish men let their beards grow and women do the same with their hair, believing such action is prescribed by the Bible.” (I wrote about the Amish community’s lifestyles before.) [Read more…]

Journalist Louis Theroux was given extraordinary access to the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, going to their church and homes in Topeka, Kansas and talking to members of the organization and produced two fascinating documentaries for the BBC. The first appeared in 2007 and was called The Most Hated Family in America and I wrote about it here. The follow-up was in 2011 and was called The Most Hated Family IN CRISIS and I wrote about it here. Those posts also give links to the two documentaries. [Read more…]

The Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America today decided to defer until its national meeting in May a decision on allowing local troops to decide whether they could admit gay members. [Read more…]

If there is one verse form the Bible that Christians are likely to be able to recite verbatim, it is John 3:16 which goes:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

[Read more…]