Rachel Ford is a programmer, and since 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't provide enough opportunity to bask in screen glare, she writes in her spare time. She was raised a very fundamentalist Christian, but eventually "saw the light." Rachel's personal blog is Rachel's Hobbit Hole, where she discusses everything from Tolkien to state politics.
The Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus has a wide reputation for volunteering and charitable giving. I know it might come as a shock that a religious organization named after famed humanitarian Christopher Columbus isn’t entirely the force for good that it’s often believed to be, but brace yourself. This article by Think Progress’ Josh Israel on the topic reveals some pretty unpalatable behavior from the Knights. It’s the typically archaic stuff you’d expect from a conservatively Catholic group with deep pockets — not surprising for an organization that Pope John Paul II referred to as the “strong right arm of the Church.” Still, it’s probably not what comes to mind when many think of the Knights of Columbus: like, for instance, spending millions to oppose LGBT equality, stem cell research, abortion access, etc. Read more
On Monday, Pope Francis delivered his annual Christmas greeting to the administrative body of the Holy See, the Curia. And it’s more or less the verbal equivalent of finding coal in your stocking on Christmas morning, from the Vicar of Christ. The Pope went through a “catalog of illnesses” he saw in the bureaucracy, cautioning the assembled clergy, Yet like every body, like every human body, it is exposed to illnesses, malfunctioning, infirmity. They are illnesses and temptations that weaken our service to God. The list of ailments he identifies is wide-ranging, from bureaucratic duplication of efforts… to gossip and brown nosing. Some were more geared toward the workings of the Roman Curia, and others were general spiritual guidelines. Seven of the fifteen in particular are worth noting, if only for the bluntness of expression: Read more
Emily Herx was a language arts teacher at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School when she sought in vitro fertilization treatments in order to get pregnant. Herx and her husband, in keeping with the Church’s teachings about the sanctity of embryos, did not destroy any of their preserved embryos. School administrators were aware of and even allowed time off for her treatments. But after her third treatment, in February 2011, when the parish priest, Rev. John Kuzmich, got wind of what was going on, he insisted that the school drop Herx’s employment contract. This was on the grounds that she was a “grave, immoral sinner” for seeking fertility treatments, who had in doing so violated the morality proscribed in her school’s employment contract. Read more
Evangelical Christian Reverend Franklin Graham was on Fox News’ The Kelly File recently and the discussion revolved around a topic cherished at Fox: Christian persecution. But not the usual December horrors, like “my grocer said ‘Happy Holidays!” Instead, while Graham and Megan Kelly were sparse on specifics, they referenced some real examples of Christians in danger in the Middle East. Graham was insistent that President Obama should be “doing more” to protect Christians around the world. It was, in short,… Read more
