Blogaround

A cat rubs its face on a Christmas ornament. Image source.

1. Last fluent speaker of Mandan dies (posted December 14) "It’s sad that I can’t speak my language that I knew, the first language that I knew, and to grow old with, to no one today. To no one at all."

2. Dear Gay People: God Does Not Want to Swap You Out (posted February) "'We’re all inherently disordered,' chuckles your straight white dude host who has never in his life been excluded from any position of church leadership due to his alleged sharing in this common human condition."

3. Digging Deep Into a 'Star Trek' You Never Saw: 'The Roddenberry Vault' is the Final Word on Trekkie Completism (posted December 15) Wow!

4. Dylann Roof found guilty on all counts in Emanuel AME Church massacre case (posted December 16) [content note: gun violence]

5. A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation (posted December 15) [content note: child sexual abuse]

6. Why the Bible Doesn’t ‘Clearly Say’ Anything (posted December 6) "They have this doctrinal belief about Scripture that for them is self-evident, yet seem, when pressed, to have very little understanding about the transmission, translation, and study of ancient texts."

The point of this article is: translation is hard.

7. The personal character of public figures (posted December 14) "Silliman’s piece revisits the stark contrast — or flagrant hypocrisy — between the ardent concern for politicians’ personal ethics that prominent white evangelicals expressed during the Lewinsky Era vs. the utter lack of such concern during the Trump campaign."

8. Rudolph the Bullied Reindeer (posted December 20) "Why didn’t Santa tell the other reindeer to stop making fun of Rudolph?"

9. The God Who Performs Party Tricks (posted December 11) "That is why I find it unpersuasive when a well-meaning Christian friend tells me I can’t ask for some kind of verification of the existence of this deity, or when he insinuates that something is wrong with me for demanding such things. I just don’t buy that."

10. How many U.S. adults are transgender? (posted December 21)

11. To My Southern Baptist Brothers Who Voted For Trump "I kept up my end of the bargain when it wasn't popular, when it wasn't convenient, when it was hard and I didn't want to, and when people I loved called me a slut because they didn't even believe that I kept up my end."