Drunk With Blood, kindle (2nd edition) is now available

The Kindle version of the 2nd Edition is now available at Amazon.

On the road with the SAB: Arkansas to Alabama

After the Reason in the Rock convention was over, Philip and I headed east through Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, passing what must be the highest density of Baptist and Pentecostal churches in the entire world. As we drove we listened to the radio -- Christian radio, that is, since there was nothing else except an occasional country music station. We even got a chance to hear Harold Camping's Family Radio show. You just can't get better entertainment than that.

The hotels all had Gideon Bibles, of course, but some also included a wide assortment of Christian tracts.The titles included: "A lost soul on judgment morning", "The coming of the Lord will be soon", and "Ye must be born again".

Along Interstate 40 we passed many interesting billboards. Here's one that that we saw east of Little Rock.

I especially like the top one, which is taken from Proverbs 23:13-14.

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

It is, after all, one of one of the 208 ways to get saved. (#110: Ask your parents to beat you with a rod)

On the road with the SAB: Moscow to Little Rock

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted much lately, it's because I'm on a crazy road trip with my son, Philip. We packed our old Prius with SABs and DWBs and headed to Arkansas to attend the 2nd annual Reason in the Rock.

There were some great speakers and presentations, which will be online later. I'll post some links when they are available.

Meanwhile, here's an interview that I did at RITR for Rachel Johnson's Pink Atheist podcast. (The interview starts at about 97:30.)

Popular Atheism Internet Radio with The Pink Atheist on BlogTalkRadio

OMGWTFBible: A loose translation

I first heard about this from a recent article in the Tablet. Comedian David Tuchman is translating the Hebrew Bible and recording it live at various venues in New York City. He invites a guest on the show to read his translation while he makes fun of it. It's great so far.

David Tuchman is Jewish (as are many of his guests) so he knows Hebrew well, and is familiar with rabbinical interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures. There's always something in each episode that I missed at the SAB. So I'm adding stuff as I listen.

My only concern is the pace. He's been doing this for a year now and he's still not through Genesis. At that rate I won't live long enough to hear him do Malachi. (If he continues at the current rate, he'll finish in 2040.)

I'd like to hear him do Malachi 2:3, for example.

Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces.

And then finish with the happy ending of the Hebrew scriptures:

...lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:6

So I suggest that he pick up the pace a bit. How about weekly, or even daily?

Here's his latest episode. Enjoy!
(I should also mention that the chapters in Tuchman's bible don't match the traditional ones. Which is OK, since the chapter numbers are arbitrary anyway. But it does make it a bit hard to follow.)

A strategy for Christians who object to same-sex weddings

It's hard to be a Christian these days. Everyone makes fun of you and sometimes you're forced to do things that are contrary to your beliefs.

For example, say you have a business that caters to weddings. Since such a service is open to the public, civil rights legislation requires you to make that service available everyone, without discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin. And as more states are recognize same-sex marriages and anti-discrimination laws are expanded to include LGBT people, Christians may be forced to provide services to marriages that they disapprove of.

So what's a Christian to do in such a situation?

Well, Tim Bayly has a strategy for you. Here's what he says at his blog.

Of course, I will provide my stuff for your wedding. I serve, and am required to serve, everyone, whether or not I approve of what he is doing. However, you do understand that if I am at your so-called 'wedding,' I will consider it my duty to call attention to God's view of what you are doing. I will consider it my obligation to warn the guests of the danger they are running and of the harm all of you are doing to your own lives as God observes them. So, I will be distributing literature that explains all this.

And I thank you for the opportunity to reach people who otherwise might never hear this message that I believe they desperately need to hear.

That's right. Mr. Bayly suggests that you agree to perform the service and then, when you arrive at the wedding, disrupt it by passing out anti-gay literature and making anti-gay sermons. Read the Bible to the wedding guests and display a "God Hates Fags" banner. Picture a same-sex wedding catered by Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church and then go and do likewise.

Which is an interesting idea. But it's not a very biblical one. Here's what I suggested in a comment to his post.

Why not agree to provide the service and then, when you arrive at the wedding, stone the happy couple to death in accordance with Leviticus 20:13? ("If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.")

To which Mr. Bayly replied:

Because, Mr. Wells, God has delegated the sword to the civil magistrate, and currently he's occupied using that sword to protect those paid to murder 1,350,000 little babies in our nation each year.

I responded with this comment, my last at his blog, apparently.

Sounds like an excuse to me, Tim.

God commands believers to kill non-celibate male homosexuals in Leviticus 20:13. No civil magistrate is mentioned or required.

But OK. I understand. You think God went just a bit too far in Leviticus 20:13. You're not willing to obey him here. Good for you.

You'd like someone else to do it for you. The civil magistrate, local police, your church governing body, whoever. Anyone but you. You'd like the blood of homosexuals to "be upon them," but you don't want the blood on your hands.

[NOTE FROM TB: From outside sources, I've learned Mr. Wells is a public mocker of the Triune God and His Word, so he won't be commenting here, again.]

It's hard to find a Christian who is willing to obey God's clear command in Leviticus 20:13. [Although there was one commenter (Bryan) who said this: "I certainly wouldn't mind stoning a homosexual to death...."]

Only Muslims (and Bryan) are willing to obey God on that one.