Let’s say you’re pregnant, and really don’t want to be. Maybe you were raped and conceived as a result, or maybe your birth control just failed. After thinking the matter over, you’ve decided that an abortion is what you want. It isn’t something you take lightly, but you feel that […]
Read More“Freedom for me, but not for thee” of the day
From the American Family Association’s spokesman, Bryan Fischer: Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to […]
Read MoreWe’ve all got our own stuff
Again on Colorlines (I’m really happy to have discovered that site), Thoi Lu discusses black male feminism: In light of the recent 11-year-old Latina who was reportedly gang raped by 18 black men in Cleveland and news of Chris Brown’s continuing meltdowns, Texas, a few black male writers have stepped […]
Read MoreFollow-up: Jesus Chicken edition
I wrote before about how the conservative Christian-affiliated chicken chain Chik-Fil-A has received some very negative feedback about their contributions toward anti-gay political causes. Here’s the latest on that: Focus St. Louis and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce said today that they are canceling a planned presentation by Dan Cathy, […]
Read MoreReligion going extinct? I doubt it.
The BBC reports on a paper recently presented at the American Physical Society meeting here in Dallas which makes claims about a decreasing level of religiosity in some parts of the world. The paper, entitled “A mathematical model of social group competition with application to the growth of religious non-affiliation,” suggests […]
Read MoreMaking sense of tragedy: was the earthquake a “divine punishment”?
Cross-posted from State of Formation. Over at Religion Dispatches Levi McLaughlin, a professor of religion who specializes in East Asian traditions, writes about Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara describing the tsunami that struck Japan as “divine punishment”: Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, […]
Read MoreAgain…tragedy + internet = outrage and nastiness.
A few days ago a UCLA student named Alexandra Wallace posted this charming racist rant about Asians in her university library: If you’re one of the few people in the country who hadn’t seen that video previously, I’m sure you’re edified to have had the privilege now. And can probably […]
Read MoreHelping vs. blaming in Japan
Over at Religion Dispatches Levi McLaughlin, a professor of religion who specializes in East Asian traditions, writes about Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara describing the tsunami that struck Japan as “divine punishment.” Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, has gained notoriety […]
Read MoreAn observation
The video of TamTamPamela thanking God for the Japanese earthquake was all over the web yesterday. I’m kind of disappointed in how willing people were to buy it without question. Not because it’s a skepticism fail per se (I fall for Poes often– that’s the point of a Poe), but because they […]
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