Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The Year of Mercy is almost at an end (2016 was the Year of mercy?!), having commenced on December 8, 2015. During this magical year, Pope Francis imbued Catholic priests with the power to “absolve” anyone involved in an abortion, so they could still get into heaven and also the church itself for when the…
black atheists matter FEATURE December 4, 2016 by Christopher Cameron Christianity has played a central role in African-American life from the late 18th century to the present. Black churches raised funds for fugitive slaves, served as schoolhouses, and provided space for political meetings and activities, among other functions. Leaders of black…
We have a clergy today who no longer believe in the devil, in exorcism, in the exceptional Evil the devil can instill or even in the power that Jesus bestowed to cast out demons. —FATHER GABRIELE AMORTH Sunday morning, May 1 of this year, was Father Amorth’s 91st birthday, but he had no plans to…
Trump’s Offer to Christians Is Same Offer Devil Made Christ By Eric Sapp Sep 2, 2016 As an evangelical and member of the Global Advisory Board of Christian Post’s parent company, I was heartbroken to read CP’s recent editorial telling evangelicals that we have a moral obligation to vote and must vote for either Donald…
Imperfect elections and flawed candidates often make for complicated and difficult choices for Christians. But sometimes historic moments arise when more is at stake than partisan politics–when the meaning and integrity of our faith hangs in the balance. This is one of those moments. A significant mistake in American politics is the media’s continued identification…
The wistful refrain among religionists has for some time now been the same: the religiously unaffiliated will return to religious practice one of these days. New numbers from a survey jointly conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service, however, might crush whatever hope is left about luring Nones back into the…
According to witchesthicket.com, one can tell she is a witch if she’s “aligned with the seasons” (pass on nature); “on fire in the summer, sexually and creatively charged and heated” (sure, I’m a Leo); and “in winter… feel[s] the weight and the silence of the dark pressing down on you” (who doesn’t?). Off to a…
On a humid afternoon this past November, I pulled off Interstate 75 into a stretch of Florida pine forest tangled with runaway vines. My GPS was homing in on the house of a man I thought might hold the master key to one of the strangest scholarly mysteries in recent decades: a 1,300-year-old scrap of…
It is a transformation that has been underway since the late 1970s, when the wealth generated by the oil boom led Saudi monarchs to devise an ambitious plan to replace earlier Ottoman structures and to expand the Grand Mosque and its surroundings with Arab-style architecture. At a projected cost of $26.6 billion, the Saudi Binladen…
The ceremonies and traditions involved in most forms of witchcraft may seem exclusive and arcane, passed down for centuries through covens and other secret groups, but today, trying your hand at the occult can be as easy as downloading an app on your smartphone. For everything from spells and rituals to numerology and tarot…