The primacy of free speech over religious sensitivity

Muslims are notoriously prone to violent anger when their god or their prophet is portrayed at all, let alone in an unflattering light. Militants have thought nothing about even murdering those whom they think have transgressed against their faith. Today comes reports of the latest atrocity, the murder of American diplomats in Libya in retaliation for the purported showing on an internet video that supposedly disrespects the religious beliefs of Muslims. [Read more…]

More on why religion is declining

If the BBC, rather than asking Rod Dreher and David Ellis Dickerson, had asked me to give reasons for the global decline in religion, I would have pointed to two things: the rise in acceptance of science in popular culture, and the internet (and of course bacon). I would have agreed with Dickerson that the increasing acceptance of homosexuality by the general public has put traditional religion in a bind and is speeding up the process but I disagree with Dreher that the fault lies with mainstream Christianity abandoning orthodoxy. [Read more…]

Jewish settler vandalism of Christian monasteries

Recently, the Israeli government, in one of its periodic attempts to placate worldwide opposition to its settlement expansion policies, forced some settlers to withdraw because of a court order. The angry settlers retaliated, not against the government, but by vandalizing a Christian monastery and painted the words “Jesus is a monkey” in large orange letters on the outside walls. It is an odd thing to write, when you think about it, because all humans are in a sense monkeys since they are our evolutionary cousins. Why a monkey? Perhaps it was inspired by the recent “Rhesus Christ” incident. [Read more…]