We just had a depressing year in religion news

From Religion News Service, here’s a rundown of some really crappy stuff that happened in the religion world, including: Trumpvangelicals And what precisely means “evangelicals?” Religious bigotry on campus And a few other ugly things.    

A renewal of moral seriousness

(Even as I type that headline, I just came off of Twitter suggesting that all that’s left for Mr. Trump to do is to shit himself and exit right…so this is me trying to redeem my own soul.) David Gushee writes at Religion News Service: I think we have good reason to be anxious about …

Three big ol’ fake-Christian aphorisms

Read this from Religion News Service. Nowhere in the text does it say: Everything happens for a reason. God won’t give you more than you can handle. Hate the sin, love the sinner. About that last one, from the link: Instead of loving others because you perceive them to be sinners, perhaps you should focus …

The Oregon mass killer was a terrorist

Chris Harper Mercer took firearms and killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, exchanged gunfire with law enforcement, and then he shot himself. He was a terrorist, says Simran Jeet Singh, at Religion News Service. Singh writes: In our modern world, “terrorist” is a racially coded word we have reserved primarily for describing Muslims …

The progressive Mormon’s guide to this Sunday’s testimony meeting

In the Mormon church, every first Sunday of the month is fast and testimony meeting. So here‘s a suggestion from Jana Riess at Religion News Service for living through the testimony part: A (non-alcoholic) drinking game! And thanks, Leftover, for everything.

How to respond to sibling sexual abuse if you’re not a Duggar

We already know how the Duggar family responds to sibling sexual abuse (basically, pretend it’s not that big a deal and carry on with the franchise), but here’s a really good article that lines out precisely what should happen. At Religion News Service, Boz Tchividjian writes about how critical it is to report the crime …

Can liberals and conservatives come together on poverty?

Pres. Obama (yes, him, and if you’ve stopped reading already I guess you’ve answered my question) suggested in a recent panel discussion at Georgetown University’s Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty (you can watch it here) that we might want to come together on this issue. Here‘s Religion News Services’ coverage, where the take-away is faith …

Read Mark Silk’s take on that so-called Gandhi beer

From his piece for Religion News Service on Gandhi-Bot pale ale making the rounds in Connecticut: …we know that the Puritans drank beer, so I’m happy to report that the Puritan Brew Co. opened in Fayetteville, Ark. this fall with the slogan: “The driving idea behind Puritan is that we all should go where things …

And in the olden days, Thanksgiving was spontaneous

And dry. And it was spent in church. You can read more here, from Daniel Burke, of Religion News Service.