The “Secret Mark” saga takes a nasty turn — Back in 1960, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University made an announcement that would startle the Christian world—and lead to decades of conflict. Morton Smith said that he had been in the Mar Saba monastery outside Jerusalem, and found a letter in an old book. Clement of Alexandria, the ‘church father’, was discussing a “secret” version of the gospel of Mark. An excerpt was quoted. It seemed to put Jesus in a “gay”…

Maybe God loves it — When you’re raised in church you’re told that pornography is as “sinful” as it gets. God hates porn! That’s what they say. But if you go trying to find out where Christianity got this information about the deity, you might be puzzled. Is it in the Bible? That’s the book that begins with naked people in a garden. Does God hate porn? Or was that just Christians? The religious likes its ban on porn, and yet look for sources, it becomes…

Tim Mackie of ‘The Bible Project’ shocks his religion — His voice is nervous. “I never get nervous before sermons,” he says, “but I totally am right now…” And then he proceeds to talk about Jesus and sexuality. Tim Mackie is the most popular Bible scholar in Evangelicalism for his work on ‘The Bible Project’. In a sermon he gave in 2015, just recently noticed, he does a shock smackdown of his religion’s anti-gay obsession.

Back in 2019 I set up my little channel here on Medium, determined to be a “religion blogger” — a phrase I was pretty sure I had just made up. I thought more light was needed on religious issues and Evangelicals in particular. And when it comes to the dark, vulgar, nasty and gut-wrenchingly horrifying, I’m your huckleberry. Now in 2023, I reached 100k followers while doing a post on Evangelical bigwig Rod Dreher’s sexual history. Could he have seen…

Rod Dreher is horrifying his own religion — He’s a famous Christian writer on sexual issues. What you’d know about Rod Dreher is that he wants a religion that’s even more anti-LGBT. When blogging at The American Conservative or in his books, articles and speeches, he talks up a “traditional, historic Christianity” — by which he seems only to mean “anti-LGBT.” So why is he talking about Black penises as if he’s been fascinated by them since childhood?

A 1960s rock star kept secrets — In 1967, a singer seen as “androgynous” and “otherworldly” became a legend. But Jim Morrison, of the Doors, would mostly just puzzle people. He died in 1971. I’m catching up on what’s been learned about him since. In memories by others, and an autobiography in verse that was published in 2021, Jim’s sexuality was often on his mind. He seemed as beautiful and dynamic as a human could be.

A ‘new’ Bible manuscript changed the world — In 1947, a young American scholar doing a kind of internship in Jerusalem was asked to look at an ancient scroll. It was said to have been found in a cave. John C. Trever agreed. The next day he found himself staring at a very old copy of the book of Isaiah—but it was different. Trever had an incredible, historic opportunity. He was the first scholar to examine a very early version of a nearly complete Old Testament book. The details of his experience were interesting to…

Let’s read the 1987 slasher with odd sex cues — Back in 1987, Fatal Attraction was the sex horror thriller that everyone wanted to see. As a remake is set to air on the Paramount+ network, I’m thinking about a villain named ‘Alex’ with wild hair, phallic cigarette, ravenous sexuality and a sailor’s mouth. The script was in development for about a decade. An original idea by James Dearden…

A new book tests how the religion sees its deity — The Bible calls the believing community the “wife” and lover of God. This is quite clear, but Christians have often been conflicted over the idea. I’m following the developing story of an Evangelical pastor named Joshua Ryan Butler. He was just cancelled for writing a book that said married sex is divine—since Jesus and ‘the church’ do it. In the Bible, deities are “husbands.”