Charles Moore on Warsi on “Islamophobia” *

Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

This is an argument between those who think that only violence need concern us, and those who believe it is from bad ideas that bad actions spring.… Read the rest



Pope says Berlusconi should be moral *

Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

Who is less moral, Berlusconi or Ratzinger?… Read the rest



Giles Fraser worries about “Islamophobia” *

Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

Offers two random comments at Dawkins’s website as “evidence.” Yes really.… Read the rest



Soumaya Ghannoushi has such a good idea! *

Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

She thinks an alliance of  independent socialists, Islamists and liberals would be just the thing for Tunisia.… Read the rest



Sikivu Hutchinson on black infidels *

Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

As a pioneer of the African American freethought and Humanist traditions, Frederick Douglass actively challenged the moral hypocrisy of white Christianity.… Read the rest



Signs and portents

Jan 21st, 2011 5:39 pm | By

Other people have been disputing BioLogos guest poster Loren Wilkinson; I’ll just add a footnote or two.

The BioLogos Foundation, with its commitment to the “integration of science and Christian faith” is one of many signs that the 150-year-old idea of a “warfare” between science and religion is ending. 

You wish. It’s actually just a sign that the Templeton Foundation has a lot of money, much of which it spends on a great many organizations and conferences and books devoted to creating “signs” that science and religion are deeply in love. The BioLogos Foundation isn’t some independent phenomenon that just happened without any interested parties helping and funding – it’s the product of a well-funded agenda. It’s disingenuous to … Read the rest



The Council of Ex-Muslims needs your support *

Jan 21st, 2011 | Filed by

CEMB is a hugely important sanctuary for women and men who face threats, intimidation and/or isolation for leaving Islam.… Read the rest



Why Tunisia’s revolution is not Islamist *

Jan 21st, 2011 | Filed by

Observers hoping Ben Ali’s fall will portend a similar fate for other Arab autocrats may be left waiting a lot longer than they think.… Read the rest



The implicit tyranny

Jan 21st, 2011 11:46 am | By

Eric explains why he writes about religion.

Suddenly, I find myself reading more and more about religion, and, since I spent a lifetime in the church, and am trying to put this behind me, I need to explain to myself, sometimes, why I am doing so. For now, instead of trying to give an account of myself, as St. Paul would have said, for the faith that is in me, I write to oppose religion, and all, or pretty much all, that it stands for…I oppose religion because I find that it diminishes — and cannot fail to diminish — us as persons.

He zooms in on the religious tendency to try to mandate a “religious” view of the … Read the rest



Ashraf Azad jailed for beating up sister *

Jan 21st, 2011 | Filed by

He punched and throttled her and called her a slag; her mother called her a prostitute; she was dating a Hindu boy.… Read the rest



Humans are forgetting how to walk *

Jan 21st, 2011 | Filed by

They stare at objects in their hands instead of the ground and surrounding objects, so they fall down or collide with people/cars/walls.… Read the rest



Who, us?

Jan 20th, 2011 12:53 pm | By

Just look at the Telegraph’s bland concealment of the nasty truth about misogynist Anglican clerics converting to Catholicism. Look at the jolly personable “we’re just a buncha nice guys” photo, look at the tactful phrasing:

The most Rev Vincent Nichols, leader of Catholics in England and Wales, ordained Andrew Burnham, former bishop of Ebbsfleet, Keith Newton, ex-bishop of Richborough, and John Broadhurst, former bishop of Fulham, as Catholic priests at a service at Westminster Cathedral in London on Saturday.

They are the first members of an Ordinariate specially set up by the Pope, for groups of Anglicans who wish to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining aspects of their Anglican heritage.

Paras 1 and 2. It takes until para … Read the rest



The report [pdf] *

Jan 20th, 2011 | Filed by

Some Catholic hospitals delay treatment for women having miscarriages until there is no fetal heartbeat.… Read the rest



NWLC reports on religious restrictions at hospitals *

Jan 20th, 2011 | Filed by

The Center’s findings apply to any institution or individual delaying or denying treatment based on religious beliefs rather than medical considerations.… Read the rest



The final arbiter is the local bishop

Jan 20th, 2011 11:29 am | By

Just imagine, some people see handing over medical care to god-botherers as a bad idea.

“Physicians are being told they must refuse to provide certain services even when they believe their refusal would harm their patient and violate established medical standards of care,” said Lois Uttley, who heads MergerWatch, a New York-based group that fights the takeover of secular medical centers by religiously affiliated hospitals.

Church officials, bioethicists and hospital officials counter that the facilities are guided by directives calibrated to deliver state-of-the-art medical care without violating religious and moral beliefs.

But they shouldn’t be guided by directives calibrated to avoid violating religious beliefs. Period. Religious beliefs have nothing to do with decisions about what the best medical … Read the rest



Catholic takeover of hospitals causes problems *

Jan 20th, 2011 | Filed by

Catholic official says there is no problem at all, cites “respect for each and every life in our care.”… Read the rest



NY Times: the Vatican is bullshitting *

Jan 20th, 2011 | Filed by

Rome officials insist that the letter from Rome is outdated, misinterpreted, and superseded by tougher church rules. It’s not.… Read the rest



Baroness Warsi to talk crap *

Jan 20th, 2011 | Filed by

Will say stupid things about “Islamophobia” in a future speech.… Read the rest



Ratzinger’s finest hour

Jan 19th, 2011 4:47 pm | By

Brothers and sisters, join with me once again in reading the holy and most sanctified letter of the bishop of Rome to his beloved members of The Church in Ireland, and see with your own weeping eyes how he places all the blame gently but firmly on them, pretending with all the oiliness of a can of sardines and all the unction of a tube of BenGay that the higher ups in Rome knew nothing whatever about it and were going about their business in innocent piety and pious innocence while those Celtic ruffians were making a dog’s breakfast of things over there on the edge of the known world. We have read it before, my dear siblings, we … Read the rest



Russian cleric to women: it’s your fault *

Jan 19th, 2011 | Filed by

If she wears a miniskirt and gets drunk and seeks contact with people “and is then surprised when that contact ends in rape she is wrong.”… Read the rest