It’s time now for another widely used illustration from the halls of fundamentalism… When an aspiring agent of the U.S. Treasury is going to learn how to detect counterfeit money, how do you imagine that they are taught to tell the fake stuff from the real stuff? Do they look at counterfeit bills? Do they [...]

As a secret house-church begins it service in a village in Communist Russia (or China, or Vietnam…), two soldiers burst in brandishing machine guns. “This is an illegal meeting,” they scream “and we’re going to shoot anybody who won’t deny Christ and leave right now!” A few folks tremble with fear and deny Christ and [...]

There are a couple of recurring characters in fundamentalist illustrations:  the errant teenager, the king who makes employment decisions based on fantastical tests involving driving a coach near the edge of a cliff, and the ever-present God-hating atheist. The atheist is a great character for a story because he’s a polarizing figure. Like the man [...]

Three cheers for the Great Blondin for crossing Niagara falls on tightrope and providing one of the most repeated illustrations about faith (or was it grace?) to fundamentalists everywhere. How history might have been changed if Jean Francois Gravelot had decided to become an accountant instead.