Daily Archives: November 3, 2009

John Calvin: Jesus’s Bulldog?

In the 19th century Charles Darwin had a bulldog (T.H. Huxley), but in the 16th century Jesus had a bulldog too. And this bulldog didn’t just bite rhetorically. His name was John Calvin, and under the right circumstances he had no compunction about literally taking your head … Continue reading

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A Gay Marriage Proposal in City Council Chambers!

A man asks another man to marry him during a city council hearing!: My response:

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Marijuana Legalization: Jessica Corry, a Conservative, Talks on FOX to Other Conservatives about Legalizing the Big Doob!

Jessica Corry speaks truth to uptight power: Jessica Corry would make a formidable Republican candidate for office some day, wouldn’t she? She strikes me as much more threatening to Democratic bases of power in our country than someone like Sarah Palin. … Continue reading

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It’s Not Just the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Birth, It’s Also the 500th Anniversary of John Calvin’s!

John Calvin was born 500 years ago, in 1509, but I have a hard time understanding what, exactly, we should celebrate about it, or how to celebrate it. John Calvin, afterall, looked askance at merriment, drinking, and dancing, so what exactly do you do to … Continue reading

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Can an Authoritarian Tree Produce Good Fruit? Thinking about John Calvin’s Geneva

After Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth? Here’s the historian Will Durant, from his book The Reformation (1957, pp. 473-474), on what John Calvin’s Geneva was like in the 16th century: Calvin himself, austere and severe, dreamed of a community … Continue reading

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