Author: Ophelia Benson

  • NY Times looks at Cardinal Levada’s record

    Complicated by the fact that his congregation’s decisions are shrouded in confidentiality rules.

  • It’s national prayerbook day

    So you’ve spent the day praying, right? Well not all of you of course, but those of you who are loyal citizens of the United States…and hey, why not, also those of you who want to show solidarity with devout Americans. No doubt there are some of you bending the knee or head-butting the floor in Swansea and Cracow, Lagos and Kinshasa, Bombay and Karachi, Lima and Santiago, Kyoto and Shanghai, just for the sake of showing that state-sponsored prayer must be supported by the united peoples of the world. Yes?

    Okay, I’ll stop now. I’ll just offer a thought from Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

    It’s obvious that Americans don’t need a government-sponsored day to pray. But this day has never really even been about prayer or the freedom to pray or not.

    Instead, the NDP has served as another opportunity for the Religious Right to exert its influence on our government and laws and send a not-so-subtle message that those who don’t agree with the Religious Right on theology are second-class citizens.

    Go, sing a song, read a poem, watch a hummingbird, or just scratch your bum and eat a chocolate bar.

  • Religious Right’s Public Piety Pageant Goes On

    But this year Shirley and James Dobson were not invited to the White House.

  • Jesus and Mo are sad about bigots

    Nobody seems to care what they think any more!

  • Behzti is no longer taboo

    Of course that doesn’t mean you can actually see it performed.

  • Philippa Stroud’s lawyers warn media

    Stroud denies belief that homosexuality is an illness, refuses comment on belief that it is demonic possession.

  • Ayala receives Templeton Prize in palace ceremony

    Ma Teresa, Billy Graham, not in opposition, often complementary, two windows, same world, different views.

  • Polygamy in France

    It can be a nice little earner for the men.

  • Beware the rising tide of

    Shaista Gohir is very generous.

    Legitimate criticism of Muslims who spew extremist rhetoric and commit criminal acts is acceptable.

    Oh. Thanks. We’re allowed to criticize people who commit criminal acts. That’s awfully nice of you.

    In France, where the headscarf has already been banned and a face veil ban likely to follow, only a couple of thousand women wear it out of 5 million Muslims.

    The headscarf has not been banned in France, of course; it’s been banned in public schools and other government buildings.

    Currently Muhammad is the second most popular boy’s name in Britain – if it tops the list of baby names, how long before there are calls to ban Muslims from naming their sons after their beloved prophet?

    Gee, I don’t know. Should we start stockpiling baked beans right now, just to be safe?

  • Real-time natural selection on crops and their pests

    You want evidence for natural selection? We’ve got evidence for natural selection.

  • BioLogos to scientists: stop advocating

    “It is important for scientists to emphasize that uncertainty is central to science.” Does that apply to religion too?

  • “The rising tide of Islamophobia”

    “How long before there are calls to ban Muslims from naming their sons after their beloved prophet?”

  • US Catholics critical of pope

    Yet they have “confidence in the Vatican to make changes to prevent abuse in the future.” Odd.

  • Ireland: Evangelicals demand “freedom”

    Of conscience and religion, which means not being legally obliged to serve gay people in public facilities.

  • Diversity in action

    Aygül Özkan said crosses and hijabs don’t belong in classrooms – and the Christian parties went berserk.

  • Urgent re-education

    And another thing. Where I come from, diversity training means something along the lines of learning not to express stupid dislike of people for absurd reasons such as race sex class sexual orientation foreignness and the like. But at the Foreign Office it apparently means more than that.

    All the staff involved in producing the memo are to be sent on “urgent diversity training”…”Although [the memo] was intended only for internal use, it was ill-judged, naive and disrespectful of some key tenets of the Catholic faith.”

    Clearly this urgent diversity training will be for the purpose of teaching staff to respect all key tenets of the Catholic faith – so “diversity” now means not just different kinds of people but different kinds of beliefs and “tenets,” and the underlying assumption is that they all have to be respected.

    But – but – but some ideas are just stupid and wrong. Some of the tenets of the Catholic church are just fictitious and wrong but others of them are harmful and wicked. People shouldn’t be trained to respect them. I can see the FO wanting narrowly vocational training in when to say what and to whom, although I’m not sure I can see extending that to internal memos – but I know I can’t see extending it to what to think, which is what this kind of “diversity training” amounts to.

  • What’s up in there?

    My friend Claire went to Denver and she saw something very nice there.

    [media id=17733 title=”GetAttachment” width=”300″ height=”225″ class=”alignnone size-medium wp-image-17733″ ]

  • Ghana: Jehovah’s Witnesses abandon child aged 5

    The child had anaemia, received blood transfusion over parents’ protest, so they ditched him.

  • Greg Laden on Boobquake

    If there is a well publicized skeptical reaction each time major stupidness is uttered, we won’t need to quake sexual organs in future.

  • The FO simply adores the pope

    Ruth Gledhill in The Times tells us that

    The civil servant in charge of the Pope’s visit to Britain has been suspended and is to be investigated for misconduct after a memo lampooning the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church was leaked to the press.

    All the staff involved in producing the memo are to be sent on “urgent diversity training”

    Urgent diversity training? Meaning what? They’ll be trained not to have contempt for contemptible beliefs? How will that be accomplished, exactly? Heavy drugging? Waterboarding?

    A Foreign Office spokesman said: “As we have made clear publicly, it was a foolish document that did not in any way reflect FCO views. Although it was intended only for internal use, it was ill-judged, naive and disrespectful of some key tenets of the Catholic faith. It has caused great offence…

    Why do key tenets of the Catholic faith have to be respected? They are false after all – and the ones that were mocked in the memo are also harmful – so respect should not be mandated. I do realize it’s not the Foreign Office’s job to make the Catholic church a better institution, but it also shouldn’t be its job to lick Ratzinger’s boots.

    The FCO very much regrets this incident and is deeply sorry for the offence which it has caused. We strongly value the close and productive relationship between the UK Government and the Holy See and look forward to deepening this further with the visit of Pope Benedict to the UK later this year.

    Does it? Why? Why does the Foreign Office strongly value the close and productive relationship between the UK Government and the Holy See? What is there to value in that? The “Holy See” is a horrible secretive coercive all-male obscurantist organization that shields fugitives from justice (Cardinal Bernard Law) and conceals decade upon decade of child rape until the last rag has been stripped away. The “Holy See” tells Africans not to use condoms during an Aids epidemic, it tells everyone everywhere not to use any birth control at all, it works tirelessly to prevent women from getting abortions and thus to deprive all women of childbearing age of a secure sense that they own their own lives. The “Holy See” stinks – it is repulsive to see the Foreign Office crawling to it in this slavish way.