Blogaround

Image source.

1. Michael Farris Doesn’t Read the Bible (Apparently) (posted August 3) "Surely I am not the only product of a devout evangelical upbringing to note the close resemblance between Price’s situation and a certain parable told by Jesus in the Bible."

2. INFOGRAPHIC: Sandra Bland's Death Is Not an Anomaly (posted August 3) "73 percent of deaths in jail occur among people not convicted of a crime."

3. To Slide or to Slice? Finding a Positive Sexual Metaphor (posted 2014) "Simply reaching each base and moving on to the next is what our culture values most. ... The baseball metaphor presents a fictitious hierarchy of sexual activities. In real life, there is no universal ranking of most enjoyable or desirable activities."

4. China's Severe Crackdown On Crosses Leads To Outrage And Tears For Christians (posted August 5)

5. How Not to Discover God’s Will For Your Life (posted August 6) "Presumably, if everybody had followed God’s will and bought the toothbrush ordained for them before the foundations of the world, nobody would have gotten hepatitis."

6. The Courage of Being Transgender in Public (posted August 6) "These events always make me think back to the first time that I ventured outdoors dressed in women's clothing. A stranger in a car drove up, called me a "he-she" (an old derogatory term), and ordered me into the car. He followed me the wrong way down a one-way street. I eventually lost him by running across an interstate highway."

7. The Day the Sun Stood Still: Interpreting the Miracle of Joshua 10 (posted July 30) "Joshua’s brief, mid-day return to the camp at Gilgal is a 90-km detour each way. And that’s not to mention the tour of Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir that follows—which the text seems to suggest all occurred that same day. And then there is one final return to Gilgal (v. 43). This is a campaign that should have taken weeks."

8. Masturbation: A Selfish, Addictive, Vicious Cycle (posted August 6) "Because I’d never really gotten intimate with myself down there, I had no idea what I wanted my husband to do or touch to give me pleasure. This frustrated him, because he wanted to bring me pleasure but was almost as new to this as I was and I couldn’t tell him what I liked. To fix this, he encouraged me to masturbate more to figure out what I like, so that he would know how to pleasure me. True story!"

9. The Abortion I Almost Had (posted August 7) "I realized that all those tactics I was taught were important and necessary for a pro-life politics – the emotional shock that justifies the use of those pictures, of those lies – were not ethical, helpful, loving things done out of good intent. They were intended to manipulate, to achieve the ends of stopping abortion, no matter the emotional or physical cost it would take on women."

10. The "New" Testament: the writers and our experience (posted August 7) "If all we had was a letter written by Moses explaining his rationale for striking the rock at Kadesh without describing the later consequences, we’d have a very different view of what happened. But that’s all we have when it comes to Paul and Peter talking about this supposed 'male headship.'"

11. These little ducks sliding down a slide. Adorable!

12. The Definitive Ranking of Christian Parody Music Videos (posted August 7) LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

13. Christian Teabagger Reps Have Terrific Plan To Hide Real Affair, With Pretend Gay Hooker Scandal (posted August 7) "As of press time, neither representative has said how they plan to explain this to the children."

14. Focus on the Family (posted August 7) [trigger warning: Bill Cosby] "I do not want her to be polite to him, to acquiesce to his charms or flattery. I do not want her to have to smile awkwardly at his jokes or flirtations, I do not want her to make herself small to make even more room for him. I do not ever want her to feel alone, as though she is the only one responsible for keeping herself safe."

15. Unarmed College Football Player Shot Dead By Texas Police During Alleged Robbery (posted August 8) Christian Taylor.

16. The Chrome extension that makes Republicans palatable (by replacing 'political correctness' with 'treating people with respect') (posted August 9) "Black Lives Matter controversy is treating people with respect 'going amok'"

17. Meals Ready to Eat: Expedition 44 Crew Members Sample Leafy Greens Grown on Space Station (posted August 7) Cool!

18. The Big Secret of Abortion: Women Already Know How It Works (posted August 9) "Women know about blood. We know about discharge. We know about babies, and many of us also love them, their little feet and hands and eyelashes. And, yes, we know that those bitty features develop while the fetus is inside us. We also know the physical, economic, and emotional costs of raising those children outside our wombs."