Eyeball of the Beholder

From the Guardian:

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Christian Parenting on the Edge

My 17 year old son has been very secretive with me lately, recently he has started to refuse to go to church with the family and tonight when I was going through his room I found a magazine with naked men in it. He obviously has a girlfriend that he is hiding from me that brought that magazine into my home and I am afraid they are having intercourse and I am greatly concerned that he is going to get her pregnant.

What should I do about this?

This Is Artistic Expression

"There is no pornography here, there's no sex, there are no virgins menstruating or feeling each other up."

Christian Fanfic

Athanatos Christian Ministries is proud to announce that their first annual Christian writing contest is now accepting submissions.

http://christianwritingcontest.com

ACM is looking for fictional short stories that reflect and represent the Christian world view. The purpose is to raise up a generation of Christian writers who can engage our culture within the arts and compete in the secular arena (ala CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, GK Chesterton, etc).

Cash prizes amount to over $2,000. College and high school students are encouraged to submit their short stories (3,000 to 7,500 words).

Two levels of competition: "High School" and "19 and Up" (college students, adults, retirees all welcome!)

Winners receive a cash award and are published in the contest anthology which is then made available through outlets such as Amazon.com. EVERY person who submits a story gets a copy of this anthology AT NO ADDITIONAL COST.

http://christianwritingcontest.com

Hosted by Athanatos Christian Ministries
http://www.athanatosministries.org

Sweet Jesus

Jeebus is with you always... clicky

Merry Christmas to All(ah)!

Dr. Sardonic, enjoying a country music Christmas at his mother's house (Noel, y'all), and I were talking on the phone, and we found that we were both doing the same thing this year. To virtually anyone who says "Happy Holidays," we respond with "Merry Christmas." Just for the sheer delight of watching their social discomfort, not for any sympathy to the people who buy into the "War on Christmas."

But speaking of wars, and Christmas...

I sat through a Catholic mass yesterday with the Sysmistress and children. The deacon was offering the usual litany of prayers, asking for divine protection for health care providers, law enforcement, and "especially our service people defending our freedoms in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Especially? Really? Shouldn't the most protection go out to the poor? The sick? The elderly? Those battling with drugs or alcohol? For that fact, everyone on a hard road, saint and sinner alike? There should be no "especially". Ever. I have sympathy and compassion for the troops. I don't agree with how they've been deployed. And I certainly don't agree with the idea that the aggressive actions that they've been charged with our defending or protecting us.

And then I heard this thing on the radio. No. Fuck no. Make that shit stop.

Military force should never, ever, ever, ever, ever be linked to religious expression, no matter how fucked up (Santa = God = USA = Military = Sunshine = Lollipops) . Nothing could be more secular.

Santa, Meet Jesus; Jesus, Santa

So what exactly was it that Santa did in the years before Jesus was born?