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.
In one Irish county, Easter Sunday’s sermons are going to coincide with an unorthodox effort to improve road safety. After over a dozen roadway deaths last year, county priests are going to bless the area’s roads. That’s supposed to improve matters, much to the surprise of, you know, facts. Who knew accidents only occurred on unblessed roads? Dare I ask what the priests bless to help people avoid sexually transmitted diseases? Read more
In probably false (please, please, please let it be false!) news, the National Enquirer is claiming that Ted Cruz carried on multiple affairs while married. The reasons to believe this is pure bunk are pretty overwhelming. First, it involves multiple women willingly involving themselves with Ted Cruz. Then there’s also the whole “it comes from the National Enquirer” thing (though the same publication correctly broke the John Edwards affair story in 2007). This lack of believability, though, hasn’t stopped some the Twitterverse from contemplating the possibilities — with the requisite horror it entails. There was concern for the “survivors”: Read more
The Affordable Care Act requires employers to, in general, include contraceptive coverage in their healthcare plans. Exemptions for religious organizations exist, though, just as they do for for-profit employers who personally oppose women’s reproductive care access on religious grounds. (Thanks, Hobby Lobby.) Those exemptions are easy to request, too: All you have to do is fill out a short form, indicating your intent to take advantage of the exemption, and file it. But to the conservative “religious freedom” crowd, that’s a burden too big. It’s an assault on religious freedom to put pen to paper. This is the basis of the lawsuit currently being considered by the Supreme Court, filed by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Read more
The Bible is full of stories about prophets and their various adventures. One of my all-time favorites? The story about Elisha, the prophet who totally-didn’t-abuse-his-direct-hotline-to-God that time when he called bears out of the woods to maul forty-two kids who called him “baldy.” At any rate, when the prophets weren’t implementing radical new approaches to juvenile delinquency rehabilitation, at least their prophet-ing didn’t involve profiteering. Not so today. Prophet Yakim Manasseh Jordan, for example, has already amassed himself quite a fortune, thanks to the faithful. Read more
