Hey everyone, Ron Gold here. This news isn’t a surprise, but now it’s official: Mississippi is the America’s most religious state, according to a Pew Forum study on the levels of devotion in America, which asked respondents whether religion is important in their lives. Eighty-two percent of Mississipians said yes. Mississippi also leads the nation in weekly church attendance (60%), in frequency of daily prayer (77%), and in the number of people who believe in God (91%). So does God reward the citizens… Read more
This post is brought to you by Ron Gold. Would you believe someone if they told you that a Mormon senator from Utah just wrote a Hanukkah song? Well, it’s true: Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a solemn-faced Republican with a soft spot for Jews and a love of Barbra Streisand, has penned a catchy holiday tune, “Eight Days of Hanukkah.” The video was posted Tuesday night on Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish lifestyle and culture, just in time for Hanukkah…. Read more
This post is courtesy of Ron Gold. Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, has been extra busy lately. In the last few days, he’s thrown his ire–or, as Hemant put it, thrown a “shit fit”–at The Simpsons and comedian Sarah Silverman for alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. But Donohue has really topped himself with a column titled “America’s secular saboteurs,” which was published in The Washington Post’s “On Faith” section. His argument is that secular liberals want to destroy American culture, and starts by claiming: There are many ways cultural… Read more
Hey everyone, this post is courtesy of Ron Gold: Reincarnation in one of those beliefs that seems quaint, but not dangerous. After all, what harm is there in a person thinking they could come back in another life as a butterfly or a mollusk? Well, believing in reincarnation is actually causing people to die, at least in India, where people are afraid to donate organs for religious reasons: Hindus believe a person’s spirit is eternal, and the body is just… Read more
Hey, Ron Gold here. An Islamic model in Malaysia–yes, they do exist–has been sentenced to be caned for her henious crime of drinking beer in public. She was set to receive the beating only a matter of hours ago, when suddenly, it was delayed for Ramadan related reasons. However, this was not a welcome decision: The first woman in Muslim-majority Malaysia to face caning for drinking beer was reprieved Monday because of the holy month of Ramadan. Her family said she… Read more