Why put such effort into publicising alleged human-rights violations in some countries but not others? … Read the rest
Pope Won’t Be ‘Intimidated’ by ‘Petty Gossip’ 
Mar 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cited ‘the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion.’… Read the rest
Paul Fidalgo on Why Atheists Should Speak Up
Mar 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Reason, science, freedom from oppressive myth, equality for those who have opted out of supernatural belief. … Read the rest
A Very Young Activist’s Reply
Mar 29th, 2010 | By Alaina PodmorowI need help. I need help to understand how and why someone would write a story about how Canadian Women are forcing their beliefs upon Muslim Women. I pasted this chunk below:
At the heart of the relationship between feminism and imperialism is an Orientalist logic that posits Western women as exemplary and emancipated in relation to “Other” (Afro-Asian/colonized) women, thereby charging the former with the responsibility of saving the latter from their backwards (i.e. Muslim), uncivilized cultures.
And even though I don’t understand at all the words Orientalist or feminism theory, I do understand what this chunk means, and now I want to speak my truth.
I am the founder of Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan… Read the rest
Not possible to stick with the programme
Mar 28th, 2010 1:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonIndia Knight on the other hand is not accepting the bluster. She’s not interested.
… Read the restIt is simply not possible, having read the papers or watched the news over the past couple of weeks, to stick with the programme. Like many of my generation, I could hardly be described as a good, or even decent, Catholic, but I’d managed to hang on in there, in the vaguest way imaginable.
Vague because it’s hard to pay lip-service to a faith that you feel hates you; a faith that would rather let you die in childbirth than have an abortion, won’t let you take the contraception necessary to prevent said abortion, hates gay people despite having many homosexual priests; a faith that
Liberals are stitching up the pope
Mar 28th, 2010 1:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonDamian Thompson is still at it – still insisting that it’s all a diabolical plot against that nice man Joe Ratzinger.
There is still no good evidence that Pope Benedict XVI is seriously implicated in the atrocious child abuse scandals that are – rightly – blackening the reputation of the institutions of the Catholic Church. But still the attempts to join the dots continue.
But even if it were true – and there is apparently a lot of evidence that it isn’t – that Ratzinger wasn’t personally ‘seriously implicated’ (what would non-seriously implicated be?) in the church’s furtive way with crimes against children, he still wouldn’t be radiantly blameless, because he is the head of the organization, and one who … Read the rest
Cloyne Diocese Kept Secret Archive on Abuse
Mar 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Achive contains stunning data – recorded in meticulous detail – on abuse allegations over several years.… Read the rest
Vatican Faces Test of ‘Moral Credibility’
Mar 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s failing the test in spectacular fashion.… Read the rest
Lessons in Morality From People Who Disgust You
Mar 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s hard to pay lip-service to a faith that you feel hates you, that would rather let you die in childbirth than have an abortion.… Read the rest
More Religious Bullying
Mar 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bishop this, Rector that, Muslim Council of the other, issuing instructions.… Read the rest
Damian Thompson Blames ‘Liberal Catholics”
Mar 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s all their fault, they’re out to get Ratzinger, mutter mutter rave.… Read the rest
Turn the other what?
Mar 27th, 2010 1:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe LA Times notices that the pope has a problem. The problem is that instead of just saying ‘We did a terrible terrible terrible thing, and we did it for decade upon decade,’ the Vatican is lashing out at 1) news outlets that report the terrible things the church has been doing and 2) other institutions that do terrible things. This is infantile and disgusting, and it is unworthy of an institution that (to repeat a point I’ve made a few hundred times) purports to have a higher and better morality than anyone else. It is unworthy because it persists in caring more about the self than the object of the terrible actions. This fact all by itself shows … Read the rest
Why Tom Flynn Doesn’t Believe in New Atheism
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because it doesn’t exist; atheism is not new.… Read the rest
Marieme Helie Lucas on AI and Gita Sahgal
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Fundamentalists were privileged as victims of the state while women, victims of the fundamentalists, disappeared.… Read the rest
The Pope Did Know; He Got the Memo
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Saying a priest would be returned to pastoral work within days of beginning therapy for molesting children.… Read the rest
Archbishop of NY Says: Blame Those Others!
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Blame the doctor. Blame public schools. Blame judges, police, district attorneys, parole officers.… Read the rest
Vatican’s Blame-shifting Shows It Hasn’t Learned
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s all utterly squalid.… Read the rest
‘How Could Catholics Do Such a Thing?’
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Communion is Love; you have to be in a State of Grace; surely child rape is a sin.… Read the rest
Sinead O’Connor Knows Irish Catholicism
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We Irish endured a brutal brand of Catholicism that revolved around the humiliation of children.’… Read the rest
Bishop: Pope’s Critics Are Satan
Mar 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Emeritus bishop of Acerra sees a war ‘between the church and the world; between Satan and God.’… Read the rest
