It seems to me that all of the rules/commandments of Christianity can be broken down into a small set of categories.

1) Self-preservation

Obviously there will be some ground rules establishing the self-preservation of Christianity. Stuff like not having other gods or not treating other religious writings as authoritative.

2) Universals

Then you have the whole set of morals that come from human universals. These tend to be echoed in virtually every culture and religion, and can even be easily derived without appealing to religion at all: for example, secular ethics (like Kai Nelson's) derives a thorough framework from Kant's categorical imperative. There also tend to be very good evolutionary reasons for why humans might be ingrained with the kinds of ethics in this category.

3) Signaling

PZ Myers points to an article detailing a new Focus on the Family apologetics seminar.

The article cites the statistical range of 50-85% as the number of "kids involved in church groups [who] will abandon their faith during their first year in college." FOTF's response has been to ditch the trampolines, magicians, and paintball ranges (the organizer's words, not mine) for a hardcore apologetics seminar.

Whoever willfully blasphemes the holy name of God [by] exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars.

It's moments like this that I scratch my head. We can certainly say that there are people who dislike Christians. But when we have states with actual anti-blasphemy laws on the books, is it possible to say that Christians are being persecuted?

One of the difficulties for Christians, I think, is the desire to live out the patterns that appear in Scripture and follow the examples and advice contained in its stories and letters. The most 'modern' portions of the Bible, though, take place in an era where democracy as we understand it was unknown.

The Slacktivist made a big 'net splash when he embarked on a massive project to read every page of the book Left Behind and painstakingly critique it. As a work of fiction it's weak, and as theology it's weaker: Slacktivist documents it, page by page, and gives a fascinating tour of modern Rapture theology along the way.

There's a lot more to his blog than that, though. He's a political progressive, a sharp writer, and he's passionate about what he believes. The comments section is tremendously active, with people from various faiths discussing and debating the issues his posts raise.

So Eaton has told me he wants me to pay him back for all his brilliant web help by fiddling around on this site, and so I've been dropped into this thing with him, who I don't know nearly as well as I'd like, and you two other guys who I wouldn't know if you you'd taken my classes. So I'm going to play a Growing-Up-Goddy meme game, and I'd like for you to play it with me. We can at least use it to compare notes on our experiences, and we might even find fodder for future posts in them.

So, have some fun with this. Fellow bloggers, I expect responses to this (and, by all means, if you think you can add useful categories, add 'em). If you're coming through and you find this interesting, you may feel free to play along in the comments; you'll be useful help for our enterprise, too.

(Heh, this Drupal thing automatically clips my post, too. We'll have to fix that. If you haven't figured it out yet, there's more behind that "Read more" link below.)

It's very, very difficult to decide whether this blog is pure satire or hip, with-it Christianity 2.0 emergent irony. Regardless, it's simultaneously thought-provoking and chortle-inspiring. Many money quotes are found in the "Brant Hanson, Visionary Coach" section, which is either frightening, or a dead-on parody of the eight gajillion 'guides for leaders' floating around executive boardrooms and modern church retreats.

The other day, while I was dead-lifting 635 pounds, I remembered a time I led a group of men up Kilimanjaro, where I introduced them to my good friend, Norman Schwarzkopf.

Norman looked at me, his eyes moist. "Thank you," he said. "For taking the time to lead me. I lead everyone, but you're the only one who led me, and I'm one of the leading leaders of visionary leaders. Thank you." He tried to hug me.

In the aggressively symbolic world of Evangelical Teen Culture, certain events rise to the level of sacrament. First and foremost is the conversion story, preferably a glamorous one involving drugs and sex and alcohol and a miraculous, tearful delivery into the arms of Jesus. Most Evangelical Teens, though, don't have the raw material for that kind of milestone: they grew up in the suburbs and dutifully steered clear of those vices (or are still hiding their vices). Everyone, though, can participate in the second rite of passage: The Missions Trip.

As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq...

Sometimes, when a story breaks and a Christian organization is involved, it's easy to pile on. The Nation this week "broke" a story about a Christian version of the USO sending care packages to troops in Iraq. What's bad about that? The care packages include the profoundly lame and profoundly controversial real-time strategy game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Reaction around the bloggysphere was predictble, with DailyKos posts and MetaFilter shout-outs and so on.

Steven "Freakonomics" Levitt recently puzzled over the popularity of recent books by the likes of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens on religion,

Here is what puzzles me: who buys these books?

I’m not religious. I don’t think much about God, except when I am in a pinch and need some special favors. I have no particular reason to think he’ll deliver, but I sometimes take a shot anyway. Other than that, I’m just not that interested in God. I’m definitely not interested enough to go out and buy books explaining to me why I shouldn’t believe in God, even when they are written by people like Dennett and Dawkins, whom I greatly admire. If I were religious, I think it would be even more likely that I would go out of my way to avoid books telling me that my faith was misplaced.

CT is a high-quality but not-too-controversial publication that captures the general consensus of upper-middle-class evangelical culture. Think of it as the Christian Time, with occasional Economist tendencies.

Did that sound snarky? I didn't mean it -- Christianity Today has high quality content, and is willing to publish material that's unpopular with its base of readers. It's just that the nature of those controversial articles (say, an editorial questioning the inherent connection between political conservatism and faith, or a review of Fight Club that is insufficiently outraged) would be considered pretty mundane in the "outside world."