The risks of hypocrisy seem forever invisible to the politicized Christians, for
whom sufficient proof of faith consists of loud and unambiguous declarations.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Hitchens on Rick Perry and religion
Aug 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBachmann says god sent quake and hurricane
Aug 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCampaign says she was kidding. Oh rilly?… Read the rest
Many health-care workers use alt med
Aug 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBut how many use massage compared to how many use acupuncture?… Read the rest
New atheists are bad newsflash
Aug 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNew atheism is “an ideology that maintains that religion is not just flawed, but evil.” It’s strident and harmful. Tell everyone.… Read the rest
God intended women
Aug 28th, 2011 5:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonSome more crazy. From Mary Pride’s The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality (quoted in Quiverful, p 135):
Abortion is first of all a heart attitude: ‘Me first.’ ‘My career first.’ ‘My reputation first.’ ‘My convenience first.’ ‘My financial plans first.’ And these same choices are what family planning, which the churches have endorsed for three decades, is all about.
Yes…………and? Why not? Why not think about one’s own self and career and other plans first when deciding what to do with one’s life?
Well she explains why not.
God intended women to spend their lives serving other people.
Oh. So they don’t get to just decide to have some other kind of life, or to combine taking … Read the rest
Skepticlawyer on the collapse of the DSK case
Aug 28th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe prosecutors would have been trying to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt of a witness they themselves did not believe beyond reasonable doubt.… Read the rest
Pakistan: man rapes girl age 2
Aug 28th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFarmer tells workers to convert to Islam, they refuse, his son age 18 kidnaps and rapes their daughter. Allah is merciful.… Read the rest
To impose the lifestyle of Manhattan and Hollywood
Aug 28th, 2011 3:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonMeet the Population Research Institute. It sounds respectable, doesn’t it. But
Founded in 1989, the Population Research Institute is a non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to objectively presenting the truth about population-related issues, and to reversing the trends brought about by the myth of overpopulation. Our growing, global network of pro-life groups spans over 30 countries.
It’s dedicated to objectively presenting its pronatalist antifeminist views as truth, so that’s an oxymoron, innit.
Its mission is to
… Read the restDebunk the myth of overpopulation, which cheapens human life and paves the way for abusive population control programs
Expose the relentless promotion of abortion, abortifacient contraception, and chemical and surgical sterilization in misleadingly labeled “population stabilization,” “family planning,” and “reproductive health” programs.
Ghana: gay rights coalition fights back
Aug 28th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Western Region Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, made an order for the ‘immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the (Western) region.’… Read the rest
Glenn Beck explains god’s way of messaging
Aug 28th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGod tells us things via earthquakes and hurricanes, like “look what I can do” and “be prepared.”… Read the rest
JREF offers challenge to celebrity “psychics”
Aug 28th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“James Van Praagh and Allison DuBois have turned the huckster art of ‘cold reading’ into a multi-million-dollar industry.”… Read the rest
Patriarchy, when it’s done right
Aug 27th, 2011 3:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere was a large and interesting conflict between Doug Phillips of Vision Forum and Boerne Christian Assembly (a small San Antonio church where he was pastor) and a parishioner named Jennifer Epstein, a conflict that was all about submission and asymmetrical rules. The condensed version is that Jennifer Epstein’s husband Mark had problems with anger and Phillips simply kept telling her to be more and more and more submissive; she tried to argue her case, and Phillips ended up throwing both of them and their children out of the church.
Epstein met her husband when both were in the military.
… Read the restShe’d thrived under military discipline, memorizing long lists of rules and regulations, willing to submit to such authority, she says,
Bomb Attack in Nigeria: Islamists Continue to Waste Human Lives
Aug 27th, 2011 | By Leo IgweYesterday, Islamic terrorists struck again. They reportedly exploded a bomb at the UN House in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The blast which shattered some parts of the building killed at least 18 people and injured many others. A local Islamist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Boko Haram is said to have links with al Qaeda and Al Shabab in Somalia. It reportedly recruits militants from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and other African countries.
Boko Haram is waging a violent campaign for the strict implementation of sharia. Sharia is already in force in 12 states in Northern Nigeria. In 2000, politicians in Muslim-majority states foisted the Islamic law on citizens in these states in violation of the … Read the rest
“Christians can’t be egalitarians.”
Aug 27th, 2011 11:58 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s helpful that they come right out and say it.
Narrated by Amy Gunn [wife of Colin, one of the brothers Gunn], Monstrous Regiment argues that “Christians can’t be egalitarians. We believe in hierarchy and inherent authority.”
Oh. Right. Thanks for spelling it out. That’s why we hate and fear you. We think that belief is evil.… Read the rest
The holy cinema
Aug 27th, 2011 11:30 am | By Ophelia BensonMeet the Gunn brothers. They make exciting Christian documentary movies that win awards from organizations that give awards to Christian movies.
They made Shaky Town, which is about the persecution of Christians by the evil gayz in San Francisco.
You’ll hear testimonies from Christian Heroes involved in a front-line battle against immorality in the so-called“tolerant” city. You’ll also see real video footage of Christian churches in San Francisco being attacked by violent groups of homosexuals. So be warned, this movie is not for the faint-hearted!
And they made The Monstrous Regiment of Women, which you can guess what it’s about (hello John Knox!). The page is super super super scary though, so be warned – it includes … Read the rest
Laurent Laveder
Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe guy who did those amazing moon photos.… Read the rest
Never heard that before
Aug 27th, 2011 10:29 am | By Ophelia BensonHow exciting: a new fresh original unexpected take on theNewAtheism. (Illustrated, I have to add, by a staggeringly banal sculpture called “the Hand of God” which is…a big hand, with a Man perched on it. Wo!!!!!!! Mind-blowing, huh?)
It’s James Wood who has the excitingly new fresh original unexpected take. He breakes the mold in the very first sentence.
In the last 10 years or so, the rise of American evangelicalism and the menace of Islamist fundamentalism, along with developments in physics and in theories of evolution and cosmogony, have encouraged a certain style of aggressive, often strident atheistic critique.
And everything that follows is equally challenging and paradigm-exploding.
… Read the restI can’t be the only reader who finds himself in
“Housewives, shut up”
Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonStudy finds boys think talking about problems is unhelpful; media report this as girls talk too much. Brilliant.… Read the rest
James Wood on “the New Atheism”
Aug 27th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAggressive, strident, simplistic, Terry Eagleton, practice, Wittgenstein, literalism, parasitic, militant, warfare, polemic, metaphor.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Libya
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt was particularly satisfying to see the use as real space of areas that had been reserved for that special kind of degradation – the rally for The Leader. … Read the rest