Now, I’m sure that pastors denouncing homosexuality from the pulpit isn’t a new thing. It’s impossible to know how often this happens. But it’s hard to escape the notion that the recent three occasions of pastors doing so, so vehemently, are related to Obama’s recent profession of personal support for gay marriage. And for that … Read more
On this day we remember and honor soldiers who have been killed. Does that include those who killed themselves? I certainly hope so, given that the stress and horror of warfare is almost certainly responsible for creating the mental conditions that produce the desire to end one’s own life as much as they are responsible for … Read more
…in four paragraphs: Libertarian: I mistrust government, a whole lot. I believe that market forces are preferable to legislation when it comes to getting things done, because they are more voluntary (consent is always best) and more easily reversible. I believe that the pursuit of happiness is a personal thing and takes different forms for … Read more
From Pandagon, Rejecting the “self-discipline” framework Money quote: “Self-discipline” can’t really be extracted meaningfully in this debate from the concept of sin and punishment. Under the sin framework, gluttony is a sin, and the only proper response to sin is punishment. Therefore, if you accept the “self-discipline” framework, there is no problem here. The overeaters … Read more
A state representative from Mississippi, Andy Gipson, posted on Facebook recently responding to Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage. Gipson first invoked Leviticus and Romans, the first of which calls for men who sleep with men as they do with women to be put to death. Asked to elaborate further, he had this to say: Why … Read more
What my brain does when it hears the word “steak” Beatrice Marovich has a fascinating essay at Religion Dispatches called “Eat, Pray, Kill: The Basic Brutality of Eating,” in which she writes about the ethical quandaries of food in the context of secular morality and religious traditions. It’s fascinating to me both because of the sheer number … Read more
Other bloggers occasionally like to dig up something they wrote years ago and share it again, either for nostalgia’s sake or because it has become relevant again, or both. I’m going to do that today, only I’m going super old school on you. High school, that is. Apologies for the fuzziness– I need a real scanner. … Read more
I do not like Psychology Today. I’ll say that up front. That’s primarily because “fluff” would be a gracious term to apply to most of its articles, and they have the annoying habit of presenting whatever trend or subject being discussed as a brand new phenomenon, accompanied by the inevitable cover advertising the preeminent story of the … Read more
From the hairpin, The Best Time I Took My Baby to the Emergency Room Money quote: This is still a little too raw for me to really want to talk about it, but I got a bit of a guilt-nudge from yesterday’s post on criminalizing bad mothers. All parents do something stupid at some point, and … Read more
Passerotti, God the Father The primary reason, it seems, that people are now telling Dan Savage that he shouldn’t have apologized– even in as qualified and precise terms as he did– is because it gives the impression that one should not criticize religious beliefs. And if one does so, and it offends, the appropriate thing … Read more