In June the club’s vice-president advised women to behave like a ”first-class whore” while in the company of their husbands.… Read the rest
Obedient Wives Club of Malaysia publishes Islamic sex guide
Oct 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFallows on anti-Mormon “bigotry”
Oct 13th, 2011 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonJames Fallows is irritating in a different way from Andrew Sullivan. He’s reliably…middle. Safe; predictable; good at thinking what Everyone thinks.
Sometimes what Everyone thinks is just wrong. Fallows as Everyone thinks anti-Mormonism is simply another bigotry, like racism.
Groan.
I do understand the political handicapping aspect of stories about the “Mormon angle.” It’s like asking three years ago whether America was “ready” for a black president. Or whether we’re “ready” for a Hispanic, female, Jewish, Asian, Muslim, atheist, gay, unmarried, overweight, etc President.
Not quite. Some of those items are based on ideas or beliefs, while others aren’t. It’s not sensible to treat them all as the same kind of thing for this purpose.
… Read the restTo be against Mitt Romney
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Jackpot
Oct 13th, 2011 4:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonThree long-term holds at the library all just turned up at once (long-term as in there are a lot of people on the list ahead of you).
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine.
Rubs hands with glee.
(I know, very horse-and-buggy. But I still like books.)… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Higher bullshitting
Oct 13th, 2011 1:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonAndrew Sullivan thinks “militant atheists” have an excessively crude epistemology. (Via WEIT)
First he tells us how his works.
… Read the restAs to Coyne’s challenge to present a criterion of what is real in the Bible and what is true, I’d argue that empirical claims - like, say, a census around the time of Christ’s birth, or the rule of Pontius Pilate in Palestine at the time – can be tested empirically. But the Gospels themselves have factually contradictory Nativity and Crucifixion stories…and so scream that these are ways to express something inexpressible – God’s entrance into human history as a human being.
If you are treating these texts as if they were just published as news stories in the
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Finally, a game for girls
Oct 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll about clothes, shopping, dieting, flirting, and hairstyles. What else do they care about, after all?… Read the rest
Tennessee mayor calls secularists “terrorists”
Oct 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“We don’t have people of that belief here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town.” Gee I wonder why.… Read the rest
Finders keepers
Oct 12th, 2011 4:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonBride kidnapping, or “bridenapping”, happens in at least 17 countries around the world, from China to Mexico to Russia to southern Africa. In each of these lands, there are communities where it is routine for young women and girls to be plucked from their families, raped and forced into marriage. Few continents are not blighted by the practice, yet there is little awareness of these crimes, and few police investigations.
Well, you see, it’s something that happens to women and girls, and it doesn’t matter what happens to them. They aren’t really people you know. They look like people, sort of, but that’s deceptive – it’s just an outer thing, like the skin on a mango. … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Kidnapping women into marriage
Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“It’s often seen as a cultural practice and not a crime. Women are considered as commodities – both by the husband who takes them and their own families who accept a deal.”… Read the rest
Ferocious extrapolation
Oct 12th, 2011 9:37 am | By Ophelia BensonThe new bandwagon (or meme): moan a deep moan about the persecution of Christians in places like the UK and the US. A guy called (inelegantly) Tom J Wilson does a particularly maudlin version for the Huffington Pest.
… Read the restThe fact that British police would consider the displaying of Christian scripture an illegal offence is a concerning indication of the mentality that British society has come to adopt towards all things Christian.
For anyone who follows the British media’s reporting of American politics, the continuous attempt to run down certain American politicians on account of their faith rather than engaging with their politics has now become a rather boring familiarity.
Bush and Palin are crazed evangelical fundamentalists we are forever
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Child sacrifice in Uganda
Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe mutilated bodies of children have been discovered at roadsides, the victims of an apparently growing belief in the power of human sacrifice.… Read the rest
UK Christians suffer extrapolation
Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“It is as if there is a systematic effort to extrapolate British society from its Christian heritage.”… Read the rest
Ireland rejects UN HRC findings on abortion legislation
Oct 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo abortion even “when pregnancy poses a risk to the health of the pregnant woman.”… Read the rest
The Onion on progress for women in Saudi Arabia
Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey have been allowed to leave their homes under the guardianship of a male relative and celebrate the right to vote.… Read the rest
More godless groups in the world
Oct 11th, 2011 11:11 am | By Ophelia BensonLeo Igwe sent me the link to a heartening article about the global energization of atheism.
… Read the restAt the World Humanist Congress in Oslo in August, delegates from India,
Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina and Brazil — all countries where belief in a supreme deity or deities has a strong hold — reported mounting interest in their philosophy.Like their counterparts in Europe and North America, they argue that morality
is based in human nature and does not need a father-figure god to back it up
with punishment in an afterlife, in which they do not believe.“There are more godless groups in the world than ever before,” Sonja
Eggerickx, a Belgian schools inspector who is president of the International
Humanist and
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Humanists, atheists drive for wider global impact
Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSwitzerland, India, Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, Malawi, Israel – even the US military.… Read the rest
Terry Glavin on Afghanistan and Absurdistan
Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere’s a lot of crazy talk among pundits in the NATO capitals about how things haven’t changed for Afghan women.… Read the rest
Apostles have been raised up by God
Oct 11th, 2011 10:06 am | By Ophelia BensonVia Ed Brayton, Terry Gross talks to the apostle C Peter Wagner. Be afraid.
… Read the restOn demons
“As we talk, in Oklahoma City there is an annual meeting of a professional
society called the Apostolic — called the International Society of Deliverance
Ministers, which my wife and I founded many years ago. … This is a society of
a large number, a couple hundred, of Christian ministers who are in the ministry of deliverance. Their seven-day-a-week occupation is casting demons out of people. And they have professional expertise in this and they happen to meeting — to be meeting right now. My wife is one of them. She’s written a whole book called How to Cast Out Demons.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A foxhole atheist speaks up
Oct 11th, 2011 9:28 am | By Ophelia BensonA-News talks to Justin Griffith, FTB colleague, Military Director of American Atheists, and the guy behind Rock Beyond Belief.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhKKLhGijuQ
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
C Peter Wagner on Fresh Air
Oct 11th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne of the biggest changes from traditional churches to the New Apostolic Reformation is the amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals.… Read the rest