Last Thursday was the annual celebration of futility known as the National Day of Prayer. There were events in Cleveland from 9:30am until 2:00pm in Public Square downtown. The Plain Dealer sent a reporter and photographer to cover the event. The report did not estimate how many people showed up (usually a sign that few attended) and the photos seem to confirm that. [Read more…]
Religion seems to attract some of the biggest exploiters and it is not hard to see why. The absurd tax exemptions given to religious organizations, coupled with the reluctance of the IRS to strictly enforce the rules because of the privileged position religion has in society, has resulted in one racket after another coming to light. [Read more…]
We met Chicago Cardinal Francis George before when he threatened to close down hospitals and other Catholic service institutions if their health insurance providers had to comply with the requirement to provide contraceptive services free of charge to their employees. [Read more…]
The personhood legislation proposed in Oklahoma has been deemed to be unconstitutional by a unanimous state Supreme Court.
A federal judge ruled a similar measure in Nevada to be unconstitutional and Mississippi and Colorado voters rejected similar measures.
Maybe there are some ideas too crazy for people to stomach even in these crazy times.
I have been beating up on the Catholic Church recently and have no regrets about doing so because that institution richly deserves it. But I think I should be a little more discriminating and point out that the immense faults of the Catholic Church can be laid almost entirely at the feet of the men in the church, and not the nuns. Not ever having been a Catholic, I have not crossed paths with many nuns in a formal capacity and so do not have much first hand knowledge of them. The few nuns I have met have been extremely nice people but there is more to this defense than personal knowledge. [Read more…]
Today is May Day, the international day of solidarity for workers, and I thought that in its honor I would coopt the famous slogan “Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” for this post, although it has nothing to do with the labor movement.
Same sex marriage is not legal in the United Kingdom. According to Wikipedia, since 2005, they have had civil partnerships that supposedly provide the same rights and responsibilities of marriage but, as I discovered earlier, this is still not full equality since, for example, if such partners travel abroad they do not have the same rights as married couples. [Read more…]
A new game show Break That Medium! that would be terrific if the people who purport to communicate with dead people really could. (via Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy)
Below is a short clip from an anti-bullying talk he gave at a high school journalism conference. It is a terrific clip but notice how when he pinpoints how the Bible is the basis for so much of anti-gay bullying, some of the students walk out. They just can’t handle the fact that their beloved holy book has so much hateful stuff in it.
But they cannot avoid the truth forever. They are going to face it over and over again from all sides.
From the 1999 film Dogma. (Thanks to Norm)
There is something richly ironic about casting the late George Carlin, an atheist whose tirades against religion in his comedy routine were legendary, as a Catholic bishop.
Here’s one such performance with some brilliant theological insights. (Language advisory)