Thursday, 26 July 2012 06:45 Written by Jim Denison

A hotel has replaced their Gideon Bibles with the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey.  The Damson Dene Hotel in the Lake District of England has made the change in all 40 guest rooms.

Hotel owner Jonathan Denby explained: "Tonight millions of women will be curling up in bed with a good book and you can bet your life it won't be the Bible.  More likely than not it will be Fifty Shades of Grey.  I haven't read the book yet—I'm not in the target audience—but I'm told it's a ripping good yarn and everyone who's in the target audience loves it.  This made me wonder about the sense of providing a book, the Gideon Bible which no one reads, and many dislike, in the bedside cabinet of our hotel rooms, instead of a book which everyone wants to read."

Wednesday, 25 July 2012 06:45 Written by Jim Denison

Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate and Arkansas governor, has announced that August 1 will be "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day." His Facebook post begins: "I have been incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick-fil-A company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments in which he affirmed his view that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld."  Huckabee says that "no one is being asked to make signs, speeches, or openly demonstrate."  Rather, he simply wants people to eat at Chick-fil-A on August 1.  He made it clear that the company is not proposing or promoting the day.

What are these "vitriolic assaults"?  Why has Chick-fil-A been targeted?

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 06:45 Written by Jim Denison

The St. Paul Saints will become "Mr. Paul Aints" on August 10.  Why?  Because their game that night is being sponsored by a group called Minnesota Atheists.

The letter "S" in all Saints signs and logos around the stadium will be covered.  There are planned references to Big Foot, UFOs and other targets of the skeptical community.  "We want to show that atheists can have fun," the group's president explains.  Since they expect to have only around 70 atheists at the game, I suspect their purposes are more centered in publicity than baseball.  If so, they should feel good about their strategy.

Monday, 23 July 2012 06:45 Written by Jim Denison

I saw The Dark Knight Rises yesterday (my review), but it was hard to focus on the movie rather than the shooting that will forever be linked to it.  One pastor in Aurora told his shell-shocked congregation yesterday, "When our world goes periodically crazy, a flood of questions can come into our minds.  The question we all probably struggle with is: Why did God allow this?  My response is: I don't know."

Others are less unsure.  One evangelist attributed the shootings to divine retribution: "we said to God, 'Get out of the public arena'" while lawsuits "have chased away any fear of God in the land."  As a result, "we're reaping what we've been sowing as a society."

Friday, 20 July 2012 06:45 Written by Jim Denison

Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, an African militia that has abducted more than 30,000 children in Uganda over 26 years.  He forces the boys to fight in his rebel group and sells the girls as slaves.  Nearly two million people have been displaced by fighting his militia has initiated.

His story is remarkable and frightening.  Kony was born in 1961 in northern Uganda.  His aunt, Alice Auma, was the tribal mystic of the Acholi people.  She convinced many in her tribe that God wanted them to unseat the government and initiate a paradise on earth.  He inherited his power and movement from her, claiming that he is a spokesman for God and a spirit medium.