Religious martyrdom is an odd thing. If someone is killed because of that person’s race or ethnicity or sexuality, that death is deplored but people who share the victim’s targeted identity do not see the death as a vindication or a badge of honor of that identity. On the other hand, religions seem to revel in their martyrs, as if having someone die or be killed for their belief somehow makes that belief more worthy. [Read more…]

Unless you are eating at a really expensive place, the 20% tip you leave will be less than $10. So a wait staffer who gets a $10 tip is likely to be very pleased. But they should not rejoice too soon. Apparently some people leave what looks like a $10 bill but is in reality a fake with some kind of religious message on the back. (You can see a clear image of the bill and message here, posted by a wait staffer who got one of them.) [Read more…]

I do not know of any culture anywhere is which spitting on someone is not seen as a great insult. There is something about the act that is absolutely disgusting and so repulses people that it can arouse the most violent responses. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when very religious people adopt spitting on others as not merely an expression of disapproval but do so in an organized way, as if their religion prescribes it as a recommended course of action. [Read more…]

The Greece v Galloway case argued before the US Supreme Court on Wednesday has once again brought to the fore the question of prayer in official government-sponsored settings. Two recent events highlight the fact that many people do not understand that the constitutional protections of freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion does not give everybody carte blanche to impose their religious and political views on others. The limits are especially strong when the ‘others’ are children in a captive environment where the sense of coercion is palpable. [Read more…]

A high school cross country runner Codie Thacker refused to take part in a regional championship and forfeited her chances at winning because the number that had been randomly assigned to her was the dreaded 666, known to Christian cognoscenti as the Number of the Beast, where the Beast is Satan, aka Beelzebub, aka Lucifer, aka a whole lot of other names. [Read more…]

Last week a surprising rumor began to be floated that pope Francis may appoint some women as cardinals of the church. This rumor was quickly batted down by the Vatican but before they did my puzzled reaction was ” How can a church that bars women from being priests have them as cardinals?”

It turns out that while women cannot be deacons, priest, or bishops there is no prohibition against women cardinals. [Read more…]

Scotusblog provided a timeline of the Greece prayer case, along with links to all the filings and Friends of the Court briefs that were submitted. (For more see here and here.) In September, in preparation for this case, Scotusblog also had an online symposium on it and invited several people with differing views to submit opinions, which I briefly summarize below. Note that these were written before the oral arguments yesterday. [Read more…]

Lyle Denniston gives a good summary of the oral arguments presented today at the US Supreme Court in the Greece prayer case. (You read the transcript of the proceedings here.) The upshot seemed to be that the judges were skeptical of the reasoning in the precedent-setting 1983 Marsh v. Chambers case that historical practice could be used to justify ceremonial prayers at government meetings. That reasoning had led to some confusion in interpretation by the lower courts, which may be why the US Supreme Court took up this case, hoping to arrive at a clearer ruling. [Read more…]

Today is the day when the US Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the case of Greece v. Galloway, in which two women in the town of Greece, NY (Linda Stephens who is an atheist, and Susan Galloway who is Jewish) challenged the city’s practice of beginning its meetings with a prayer. The city had begun its meetings with a moment of silence until 1999 when it started using prayers that were exclusively Christian. When the practice was challenged in court in 2008, the city kept the practice but broadened the prayer givers and have since had Jewish, Baha’I, and Wiccan prayer leaders, though the overwhelming prayers are still Christian. The city argues that since it allows people of various faiths to pray, it is not sectarian and the fact that most prayers have been Christian is an incidental fact because of the religious composition of the community. [Read more…]