Simply and Satirically Me

The young man and his girlfriend had lived together for 8 years. They’d had a daughter together. Both their paychecks went towards sustaining their small home. And they wanted to be baptized. Normally, it would seem rational to tell them to stop living together so they could get baptized. But this was a family. And that’s not how things worked. While separation still an acceptable solution, we were instead encouraged to have them get married before baptism. Why? Because a temporary separation just for the benefits of baptism was no security that they wouldn’t end up living together again—this time breaking sacred covenants. It was strongly urged, then, that they wait for marriage before getting baptized. The waiting process in Brazil is long. And sometimes, one couple or the other also has to  go through a complicated legal process of divorce from a previous partner. But, we tell them, it’s better to wait. The church has never been interested in a numerical manifestation of churc

It needs to be explained clearly, because no one is doing it. Conservatives, right-wingers, Christians, or any other advocate of traditional notions of morality seen as out of date or “on the wrong side of history” are becoming apologetics. And the irony is that it’s because they are actually much more tolerant, open-minded, and even scared than their political and social opponents. Instead, they are fighting in an arena regulated by a liberal agenda that couldn’t be called progressive any more than those of us still holding out for Social Security. The way it works is simple. If you don’t play by their rules, you’re a bigot. So of course you play by their rules—one of which requires that everyone who disagrees loses. Heads you lose, tails I win. That’s politics and there is no God, so why are you complaining, bigot? Well, that’s simple. Because any policy of government that mandates the universality of thought is already growing into a repressive arm of tyranny th