Christianity Today interviewed Anne Rice on following Christ without the institutional church (thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet). I’m sure the whole interview is interesting for conversation at the least, but I noticed this paragraph, which our friend Hunter Baker (may his books always be in print) may enjoy:

The damning of the secular culture is upsetting and embarrassing. Secularism in America has done great things. It’s allowed people to live here whether they’re Catholic, Protestant, or Muslim, and it has protected people from the extreme beliefs of their neighbors.

Oh, the soothing influence of secularism. If not for it, we would have slaughtered our neighbors and warred with the nations all in the name of some irrelevant deity.

In related news, Jared Wilson has quit the ninja. I doubt he will live out the year, but I hear ninjas are turning over a new leaf. The tolerating influence of secularism, you know.