Nate Knows Nada

Perfectly exemplified here:

I
was walking across a bridge one day, and I came across
a man standing on the rail, about to jump. I said ‘Stop!
don’t do it!’

‘Why
not?’ he said.

I
said, ‘Well, there’s so much to live for!’

He said, ‘Like what?’

I said, ‘Well… are you religious or atheist?’

He
said, ‘I am quite religious.’

I said, ‘Me too! Are you a Christian?’

He said, ‘I am.’

I said, ‘Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?’

He said, ‘Protestant.’

I said, ‘Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?’

He said, ‘Baptist!’

I
said, ‘What a happy coincidence. So am I. Are you Baptist Church
of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?’

He said, ‘Baptist Church of God!’

I
said, ‘Amen!
Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist
Church of God?’

He said, ‘Reformed Baptist Church of God!’

I
said, ‘Amen and Amen! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation
of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?’

He said, ‘Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation
of 1915!’

I
said, ‘Die, Godless heretic!’ and pushed him off the rail.

I have found myself liking a fairly new journal of religion and society, The New Pantagruel. 

I’m a self-described iconoclastic liberal.  I find myself more
interested, in the end, in intelligence than in the underlying politics
of what I read.  It’s why I am not attracted to blogs like DailyKos
— I’ve met and talked with Kos, and he’s intelliegent, but the blog
puts service to partisan ends above intelligent discussion and
argument.  I may want to check it every so often, but I can’t read
it with any regularity.  And since there’s so much choice on the
interweb-thingy, I spedn my reading energies elsewhere.

Pantagruel has shown up fairly recently, in the last few months or
so.  And I have to admit that any blog that gets endorsement from
Christianity Today would probably be something that I would normally
steer clear of, as CT all too often puts service to ideology above
intelligent, questioning thought.  (This is at least true in the
print version of the CT mag.  Books and Culture,
however, provides the exception to the general CT rule; there you’ll
find intelligent argument, questioning of some received dogmas, and
such.  Less fear, more thought.)

Pantagruel offers intelligent thinking on religion and society. 
It purports to be sort of from the conservative side of the political
and religious playground, but my examination of it over the last few
days indicates that thinking is more important than ideological
subservience.  It’s intelligent and questioning in the same way The Revealer
is.  And the editors actually shy away from explicit statement of
political or religious creed, preferring to let the reader make his or
her own judgement.  Refreshing out there in a journal of religion
and society.  So take a look….