yesterday morning, the theological wing of the twittersphere exploded when audio surfaced of rob bell affirming same sex marriage. while speaking at grace cathedral—an episcopal church in san francisco—he was directly asked about his stance on gay marriage and he offered the following response:

“I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”

truth is everywhere.

so was i reminded yesterday when i happened upon a tweet from @Buddha_Insights (via damien echols):

https://twitter.com/Buddha_Insights/statuses/295849109473091584

file this tweet in the category, “shots fired”. in this case, (whether it’s intentional or not) the shots flew in the direction of christianity. and, quite frankly, the shots are fair. (as well as this one, but that’s another post altogether.)

the controversy surrounding zero dark thirty began swirling almost immediately after word got out that kathryn bigelow, award-winning director of the hurt locker, would be making the film. as soon as screenings began, the criticism reached a fever pitch, with both conservatives and liberals decrying the film. even when, on twitter and facebook, i stated that i’d be seeing it, a few people chastised me for doing so.

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are with the final installment (check out part 1 here and part 2 here).

i always tell people that there’s never a better time for music than right now. i still get excited about album releases and i’m continually impressed by how artists are innovating and creating. 2012 was no exception. there was so much good music that making this list was harder than ever. in the end, i think i’ve narrowed down to 30 truly great albums.

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 3 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are with part 2 (check out part 1 here).

i always tell people that there’s never a better time for music than right now. i still get excited about album releases and i’m continually impressed by how artists are innovating and creating. 2012 was no exception. there was so much good music that making this list was harder than ever. in the end, i think i’ve narrowed down to 30 truly great albums.

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 2 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are.

i always tell people that there’s never a better time for music than right now. i still get excited about album releases and i’m continually impressed by how artists are innovating and creating. 2012 was no exception. there was so much good music that making this list was harder than ever. in the end, i think i’ve narrowed down to 30 truly great albums.

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 1 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

this past thursday and friday—with best new music discoveries and cover songs—have been list appetizers. but now we’ve reached the main courses: songs and albums (we’ll get to albums in a couple days). i’ve listened to, um, a few songs this year. and while many were good, there were a select list of great songs.

since there were so many great songs that deserve a little extra attention, i thought i’d split the list into 2 halves. we’ll work through numbers 30 through 16 today and tackle the rest tomorrow.

so, from commercial sensations to obscure internet phenoms, here’s the (first half of the) songs that made 2012 a great year for music: