Q. Who is that a picture of?

John Calvin, of course. We've taken the liberty to revise his look to something more acceptable in emergent churches. If it bothers you, remember that Johnny C. would be far more disturbed to know that Baptists were calling themselves 'Calvinists' than to be portrayed with the t-shirt.

Q. Who are the "Truly Reformed"? Do they really have a league?

There is no league. Or Calvinist Youth Movement, for that matter. The term "truly reformed" refers to those Calvinists who believe that they are the only ones who truly possess and represent Biblical, reformation Christianity. They will usually tell you so in no uncertain terms. They tend to behave as if any deviation from their version of Calvinism is apostasy from Biblical Christianity. They are most known for drawing lines in the sand as often as possible and attempting to insure that only their reading of the confessions is tolerated. You will find them fighting battles over worship style and theology, but those most deserving of the title "truly reformed" are usually behaving as if they owned the reformation and were recently appointed sheriffs of the blogosphere.

Q. There is a "League of Reformed Bloggers" moderated by David Wayne at Jolly Blogger. Are you making fun of them?

Absolutely not. The "League of TRULY Reformed Bloggers" is a parody, intended for humorous purposes only, and has no reference to the LORB or any other actual group.

Q. Why are you always picking on the Reformed?

The quick answer is that the BHT has been the target of a rather amazing barrage of threats and intimidation from the above mentioned "truly reformed." The better answer is that the BHT has taken humorous shots at most every kind of Christian in existence, which includes all the types represented in the bar. It's just that certain Calvinists were the only ones to say things like "I'm going to burn down the bar with all of you in it," and "A group of us are watching everything you say." When someone is that jumpy, you've got to flick their ears as often as possible, just for entertainment.

Q. Aren't you guys being bad Christians by making fun of other people like that?

Read Matthew 23 and Galatians 1. Then get back to us on that.

Q. Aren't you afraid that somebody might be led astray by some of the things you are espousing?

Short answer: No. The BHT is a conversation among a very diverse group of people. We aren't here to teach. We're here to enjoy good conversation and have a few laughs. People who treat the BHT as a church or a type of teaching ministry need to walk down to the corner, wave at their neighbors, enjoy the sunshine and drink some fruit juice.

Better answer: No. The Christian conversation has been going on for two thousand years. We are simply part of it. People who want to limit conversations because they might be dangerous won't like what we are doing, because we value the free speech allowed on the internet and we enjoy the conversation of various kinds of Christian theology. We don't believe the Christian community is well served by religious police telling us to stop talking about something that offends a mullah somewhere. A reformation always reforming is a conversation that's always ongoing. As members of churches, we have made confessional commitments, but as human beings and fellow travelers, we plan to keep talking about what interests us.

Q. So what do you think about Reformed Christianity?

Most of the BHT would happily identify with the Reformation in some way. Several of our members attend Presbyterian and Lutheran Churches. You will frequently hear Reformation confessions (or confessions influenced by the Reformation) referenced positively by BHT members. While we often debate aspects of the classic Reformation questions, we certainly all value the Reformation as a critical juncture in Christian history.

In a recent post, Michael listed many reformed influences in his own life that he continues to affirm and embrace.

Q. Who is this "[name deleted]"?

It's [name still deleted], noted Christian [occupation deleted] and [occupation deleted]. His website is at [URL deleted]. This self-appointed reformed watchdog is somewhat tolerable most of the time, but his fans surf the net, looking for his name, and then start fights using the crudest and most hateful of rhetoric. We had about a month of it, and had to shut down the BHT comments because of the invective. So we've adopted a "don't attract the trolls needlessly" policy.