Author: Ophelia Benson

  • The Observer on Leila Ahmed on hijab

    “Observing strict dress became one means of displaying egalitarian principles and conveying the wearer’s strength and authority.” Srsly?

  • Telegraph spots more persecution of Christianity

    The General Medical Council reprimanded a GP for pushing his religion on patients. Telegraph says they could always just ask him to stop.

  • Nick Cohen on libel law v free flow of information

    It is not as if the judges had to intervene to protect the public from information overload on the banking collapse.

  • Teacher pulled from class for some goddy reason

    There was this song about god, and the teacher said explain your thinking a little more, and we can’t have that.

  • India: mob blinds “witch” with scissors

    Eleven people stormed into a residence and assaulted a woman they accused of witchcraft, blinding her and her father by stabbing them in the eyes with scissors.

  • Out of the basket

    Such a pity about Jim Wallis and Sojourners (if you like that sort of thing, at least).

    But the rejection of so mild a political message, by a magazine whose editor has laboured mightily to establish himself as the face of the religious left, has sparked recrimination and soul searching among progressive people of faith in the US.

    Maybe that’s because “progressive people of faith” care way too much about unity and cohesion and community among progressive people of faith and not nearly enough about free inquiry and principle and substantive issues and dissent. We ornery disputatious gnu atheists are the opposite. We’ll be a community of one if that’s what it takes.

    Seriously, “progressive people of faith” do seem to have some kind of weird bug about unity, which to a jaundiced outsider would be better named “conformity.” Everything is to be sacrificed to “working together,” as if people who disagree can’t work together despite disagreeing. This imperative fosters an ooky mix of coercion and sentimentality which I find less than congenial.

    Jim Wallis’s supporters, who are more liberal than conservative, believe he has had a knack for creating a safe space in which religious leaders who hold divergent views on issues rooted in sexuality can make common cause against hunger, poverty and war. His detractors believe that his is largely a ministry based on media attention, painting him as a skilful straddler and self-promoter, who convenes gatherings of less politically savvy religious leaders, and then emerges as their spokesman.

    Yes…I recognize the type, and I’m not crazy about it. That’s especially true because the self-promotion so often comes at the expense of that eternally despised minority, The Atheists.

    In Barack Obama’s Washington, there is no more visible Christian leader than Wallis, who is sometimes described as one of the president’s “spiritual counsellors”.

    But see I think Barack Obama’s Washington should be secular; that it shouldn’t be haunted by “Christian leaders” at all; that the president shouldn’t have “spiritual counsellors” except in private.

    But one cannot be both the left bank and the bridge. Either one is the face of a movement whose values one embraces and espouses, or one practises circumspection to play the honest broker, the great convener, the architect of the grand synthesis. Wallis still wants to be both, and this is now manifestly unhelpful to LGBT people and their supporters.

    Pre-cisely. One cannot be both the left bank and the bridge. One can’t do everything, have everything, be everything.

    …this argument opens a self-inflicted wound, calling attention to the fact that Wallis’s appeal to the political right is based precisely on his willingness to toss LGBT people and women in need of abortions out of the basket when the balloon starts to lose altitude.

    That’s the problem with the “of faith” bit. The reasons for doing that are faithy, and they have no purchase on atheists. Atheists don’t have a demanding heartless Boss to appease.

  • Tahmima Anam visits some madrasas for girls

    Rabeya and Ayesha are at the mission because they are poor; it is the only place where they are sure to be safe from hunger, abandonment, predators.

  • LGBT rights row undermines Jim Wallis

    His detractors believe that his is largely a ministry based on media attention, painting him as a skilful straddler and self-promoter.

  • Rapture parties planned

    If Jesus returns, he’s welcome to attend.

  • NY Times on Vatican’s pathetic “guidelines”

    The continuing stress on church priority in what essentially are criminal offenses is disheartening, Times says mildly.

  • God put you here to have 20 babies

    At the heart of every great religion is compassion.

    Catholic bishops have threatened to excommunicate President Benigno Aquino over a reproductive health bill introduced into the Congress yesterday…The aim of the bill is to control population growth, reduce HIV infection rates and eradicate the need for women to seek backstreet abortions.

    Well the Catholic church isn’t having that. Hell no. More population growth despite grinding poverty; higher HIV infection rates; more backstreet abortions. The compassionate approach.

    …the church, which has enormous clout in the Philippines, is not about to give way. Since 1998, it has quashed several previous versions of the bill. “Sex is not a game that should be taught to children, along with the use of condoms, supposedly to avoid disease,” the Archbishop of Manila, Gaudencio Rosales, told an anti-contraception rally in the capital two months ago.

    Sex is also not a game that should be taught to archbishops, we’re told, yet archbishops don’t hesitate to tell all 7 billion of us all about it. Compassion in action.

    Let’s have a Draw an Archbishop Day, and see what Chris Stedman says about that.

  • Forceful Evacuation of Children from CRARN Center by Akwa Ibom State’s Commissioner for Women Affairs

    On May 10, 2011, the Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Accusations and Child Rights Abuses, established by the Government of Akwa Ibom State and led by Hon. Justice Godwin Abraham, concluded its sitting which was initially held at Akwa Ibom State Judiciary headquarters, Uyo, and was later adjourned to Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat, Uyo and then to Nigeria High Commission, London, United Kingdom.

    On May 16, 2011, a mere six days later, Mrs. Eunice Thomas, Akwa Ibom State’s infamous Commissioner for Women Affairs, together with her team, stormed the premises of Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), with a centre at Esit Eket, abducted over one hundred of its children, forced them into Akwa Ibom Transport Company (AKTC) coaster buses and drove them to Akwa Ibom State Special Children Centre, Uyo.

    Interestingly, the Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Accusations and Child Rights Abuses made a finding on the said centre to the effect that it is understaffed and lacks adequate facilities to cater for as few as fifty children. Moreover, even its few staffers are ill-trained; and they freely profess belief in witchcraft, and that the children under their charge are indeed witches as charged.

    It is difficult to agree that Mrs. Eunice Thomas’s ill-considered action was approved by the Government of the State or taken in the best interest of the special class of children who are supposed to be an important part of her charge. However, assuming without conceding that her action was sanctioned by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency now has a grave duty to justify his action as it was not based on the findings of the Commission whose report is pending.

    The unvarnished truth is that the Commissioner for Women Affairs, during her evidence before the Commission of Inquiry, clearly took a very heavy beating. She demonstrated criminal ignorance and incredible incompetence in the running of her Ministry. For instance, she did not know the actual number of children in her custody; she had no idea of the number of child-shelter centres in Akwa Ibom State; and she admitted that she had never made any effort to ensure compliance with the Child’s Rights Law of Akwa Ibom State. These shortcomings are both shocking and tragic.

    Moreover, the very honourable Commissioner claimed on oath that every Saturday she visits all of the four orphanages in Akwa Ibom State run by the Government of the State. She also claimed to have issued certificates of custody rights to NGOs other than CRARN. These were all lies – to her knowledge. And the Commissioner was on oath!

    Having realised the total disaster and fiasco that was her testimony and the coup de grace of a sack awaiting her, she is now making frantic efforts to not only save her job but also position herself for reappointment into the next Cabinet to be constituted by the Governor of the State who secured a fresh term of office in the nationwide gubernatorial elections of April 26, 2011. Clearly, the good Commissioner is more concerned about maintaining her exalted position in the administration than she is with the fate of the embattled children.

    As the honourable, courageous, independent and respectable Commission of Inquiry of Hon. Justice Godwin Abraham found out, CRARN Centre is by far the most qualified to keep children branded as witches, compared to any of the centres maintained by the Government of Akwa Ibom State under the direct supervision of Mrs Eunice Thomas.

    Based on the foregoing, we urge the Government of Akwa Ibom State, as matter of national emergency, to:

    1. Relieve Mrs Eunice Thomas of her appointment forthwith; and

    2. Commence a robust and all-round implementation of the Child’s Rights Law of Akwa Ibom State.

    The Government of Akwa Ibom State should take note that should it fail to comply with the above minimum demands; we will be constrained to deploy all measures at our disposal to enforce the fundamental rights of children forced into homes that are not habitable.

    We commend to you the time-honoured adage: A stitch in time saves nine.

    Signed:

    _____ ___________                                       _____________________

    JAMES IBOR, ESQ.                                     E. U. UNOH, ESQ.

    Executive Secretary                                              Legal Adviser, Expert Committee

    ____________________

    NSE PAULINUS

    Chief of Logistics, Expert Committee

    About the Author

    A press release from the Basic Rights Counsel Initiative, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

  • Being constructive

    Chris Stedman is patting himself on the back again for being more “constructive” and bridge-building and worried about marginalized communities than everyone else. He patted himself on the back on Facebook this morning for a blog post about Draw Mo Day.

    In my work for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) I’ve labored alongside Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. My biggest takeaway has been the notion that people of different religious and philosophical identities have a lot more in common than we instinctually imagine. Sure, my Muslim collaborators think Muhammad was the prophet of a God that I don’t even think exists. But, I don’t care much about that difference between us. Our deeper convictions—that all people have the right to dignity, that we need to find a way to achieve a more peaceful world—are the same and, frankly, they matter more.

    That’s lovely – as long as their deeper convictions are in fact that all people have the right to dignity (with all that that entails). It’s not safe to assume that with theists, though – theists always have the potential for believing the opposite – that not all people do have the right to dignity. Religions play a very large part in rejecting that very conviction and assertion.

    The theists (and Buddhists) Chris Stedman knows nevertheless hold that conviction, according to him. Good; excellent. But he doesn’t get to extrapolate from that that all theists do. He doesn’t get to assume that all theists put human dignity (and thus equality) first and belief in their god or their god’s prophet second.

    The significant disagreement among secular folks around EDMD isn’t a new phenomenon. Our community is an oft divided bunch. This diversity can be an asset as often as it is a weakness. But the only way this will be a source for strength is if we can come to a consensus on some ground rules. The first of these must be respect for our ideological differences, a respect we must extend to communities beyond our own.

    No it must not. That’s why I refuse to join Stedman’s parade, and why I keep raining on it. (Well, that plus the relentless way he keeps saying how swell he is for saying things like that.) I’m not going to sign up for any ridiculous blanket respect for ideological differences; I’m not going to respect the Catholic church’s ideology about women, for one example, and there are plenty more where that came from.

    I guess that means I’m not “constructive.” Well, too bad.

  • Muslim convert charged with threats

    Threats against “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the episode that discussed drawing Mo and portrayed him in a bear suit.

  • Philippines: Catholic church throwing its weight around

    Catholic bishops are threatening to excommunicate President Aquino over government plans to provide free condoms and sex education.

  • Sydney Morning Herald talks to Leo Igwe

    Few people know as well as Leo Igwe just how deadly irrational beliefs can be.

  • Cambridge all in a lather

    The priest has allowed girls to serve during a Latin mass. Several members of the congregation were so outraged that they walked out in protest.

  • Damian Thompson pitches a fit

    About women servers at mass at Cambridge. What is the chaplain’s point? Trendy bastard.

  • Trouble rears its

    James Hannam reiterates that religion and science have always been quite matey despite what Some People say to the contrary.

    …today, science and religion are the two most powerful intellectual forces on the planet. Both are capable of doing enormous good, but their chances of doing so are much greater if they can work together. The award of the Templeton Prize to Lord Rees is a small step in the right direction.

    Well religion is one of the most powerful intellectual forces on the planet if by “intellectual force” you mean “force that interferes with humans’ best intellectual skills,” but I suspect that’s not what Hannam wants us to take away from his happy thought.

    He has some critics on that post, too. Like the one by James Hrynshyn:

    …it seems the facts as laid out by Prof. Hannan’s review suggest the precise opposite of the idea that science and religion can work well together. He notes that the two are compatible when science does not challenge anything consequential. So long as science sticks to abstract notions, everyone gets along. But as soon as science challenges anything the churches care about, trouble rears its ugly head.

    It’s the usual thing – yes they can “get along” if religion stays in its compartment; no they can’t “get along” in any substantive sense.

  • Review of Reasonable Atheism

    Aikin and Talisse maintain that core beliefs like religion and politics are exactly the sort of things that should be discussed in mixed company.