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.
Texas State Senator Charles Perry (below) decided his swearing-in ceremony last week would be a capital opportunity to invoke Godwin’s Law in his quest to force (his) God into the public square. Describing his theocratic ambitions as part of a “spiritual battle for the spirit of this nation and the soul of its people,” he emphasized that abortion and same-sex marriage will be key issues. Read more
Last month, we mentioned a Supreme Court case involving religious facial hair. With the case being heard this week, Georgetown Law professor Jeffrey Shulman has an insightful piece up on Yahoo News about the promotion of religious belief over the law of the land. While the most obvious example is the Hobby Lobby ruling (and related decisions and cases based on it), Shulman points to this less well known case: Abdul Maalik Muhammad, who will enter legal history as Gregory Holt, wants to grow a beard in accordance with his Salafi Muslim faith. Though obligated by his understanding of Islamic law to leave his beard entirely uncut, Mr. Holt seeks to grow only a half-inch beard. The problem is that he is in an Arkansas state prison, where he is serving a life sentence for burglary and domestic battery, and state prison officials have their own set of hair dictates. Read more
Just in case the release of Left Behind isn’t enough Rapture-y goodness for you heathens, video site Everything is Terrible! has got you covered. The site, which highlights humorous, terrible, and/or bizarre videos from the VHS era, is about to wrap up its celebration of Rapture Week! One of the more delightful finds on their Facebook page is a video by New Hope Village Church, starring Pastor Vernon Billings. AV Club describes it as “17 minutes of fear tactic fun.” Read more
Jessa Duggar, of 19 Kids and Counting fame, recently posted a lengthy diatribe against evolutionary science and women’s reproductive care to Instagram, in which she likened abortion to the Holocaust. The post accompanies a photo from the Holocaust Museum, and it’s pretty clear out of the gate where she’s going with this. I walked through the Holocaust Museum again today… very sobering. Millions of innocents denied the most basic and fundamental of all rights — their right to life. One human destroying the life of another deemed “less than human.” Read more
