Not that this is a suprise, since, in my not so humble opinion, they get Christianity wrong.

... the Christian Right, I finished my final project for the Art and Religion class. It's a video about their hypocrisy. My good friend Cindy is going to post about it, so I figured I'd beat her to the punch. :-)

Note: if you have dial up, don't even think about trying to download it. It's way too big. Sorry. If you are really interested, I'll send you a DVD.

I'm not sure how I managed to make my way into this stellar group, but I'm part of the crew launching the new blog, called Talk to Action. This site is focused on the theocratic Christian Right, and how to counter it. Fred Clarkson, one of the founders, has a great post on Kos, which explains the why and wherefore of the site.

First, a short preface note. For those of you that might not know, I was trained, and worked as, a biologist for almost 20 years (if you count graduate school.) I know evolutionary theory, and I know science.

E.O. Wilson says, in an introduction to a new compilation of the work of Charles Darwin:

A press release by the organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State made me ponder. The background is the recent news that a church in Pasadena, CA (All Saints Episcopal Church) is being investigated by the IRS because of an anti-war sermon. Here is their concluding paragraph:

This was an interesting quiz to take, given my progressive theology. And I imagine it was a bit skewed in the results because of that. But it's still kinda interesting, and in the end, just about right - serving others first, followed by Mystical Communion (what a nice phrase). And institutional way, way at the bottom.

A funny thing happened in Bible class today. This is the discussion section for this huge first year class that I'm totally stressing out about (I have a mid-term next Thursday.) We were talking about the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Interesting dudes. (Actually, Isaiah was probably written by at least 3 different people.) Anyway, our wonderful TA put up a sentence on the board, for us to huddle in small groups and discuss. It was: "A prophet is __________." Fill in the blank.

There is a great article by Chuck Currie, one of my favorite-ist bloggers, about Beth Stroud, who, some of you might know, is the United Methodist minister in Philadelphia that was stripped of her credentials by the church, and she is in an appeals process.

I generally let Jesus Politics, and others, spend their time reading those radical right types, and then I'll read the ones they point out that seem particularly, well, significant in some way. If I didn't do that, I'd be spending my time frothing at the mouth, instead of blogging, or doing my school work.

One of the useful things about requirements is that it gets you to do things you might not have done if not required. Things that might actually be good for you. PSR has this thing called "Contextual Education." You have to find an event, or something that stretches you in directions you would not go in normally.

For me, their regular roster of possible events (anti-racism workshops, going to serve meals, varied social justice activities) wasn't going to stretch me. I figured I should go in the other direction. That would be a stretch.