Terry Firma, though born and Journalism-school-educated in Europe, has lived in the U.S. for the past 20-odd years. Stateside, his feature articles have been published in the New York Times, Reason, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Wired. Terry was the founder and Main Mischief Maker of Moral Compass, a now-dormant site that pokes fun at the delusional claim by people of faith that a belief in God equips them with superior moral standards. He was the Editor-in-Chief of two Manhattan-based magazines until he decided to give up commercial publishing for professional photography... with a lot of blogging on the side. These days, he lives in an old seaside farmhouse in Maine with his wife, three kids, and two big dogs.
Ten summers ago, Francis Crick, the famed molecular biologist and neuroscientist who won a Nobel Prize for co-discovering DNA, died after a years-long battle with colon cancer. One of his closest friends and collaborators, Kristof Koch, remembers Crick’s demise — and especially his unflappability in the face of death — in this funny and moving 16-minute presentation, recorded before an appreciative audience at the World Science Festival. We feature it here because, unlike Koch, who remained a practicing Catholic (more on that later), Crick didn’t believe in an afterlife. In fact, he was often profoundly irritated by religion, especially Christianity: “I do not respect Christian beliefs. I think they are ridiculous. If we could get rid of them we could more easily get down to the serious problem of trying to find out what the world is all about.” Read more
On Thursday, I came across a Guardian column by Andrew Brown, titled “Why I don’t believe people who say they loathe Islam but not Muslims.” I thought it an interesting piece of casuistry, easily dispensed with, as we presumably all love or like certain people whose religious or political convictions are far from our own. Many of the Guardian’s readers made the same point, but none did it better than the members of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a collective that penned a single comment that rationally and politely took on Brown’s simple-minded premise. Yesterday, with the CEMB’s permission, we published that comment on this blog, verbatim, without further editorializing. Someone at the Guardian must’ve liked the CEMB’s response, too, because the comment briefly became a “Guardian Pick,” a little editorial attaboy to a particularly clever or insightful reader. And then the paper deep-sixed it: Read more
The New York Times gives some lovin’ to priests who violate their sacred promise to keep it in their pants. The paper isn’t talking about child rape for a change, but about consenting adults. One anonymous couple is introduced thusly: They had not planned on falling in love, but they did. They did not want to become the objects of malicious gossip, but they are. They had not imagined living a life of furtive affections and secret rendezvous, but that is what has happened since the woman and the priest defied a Roman Catholic Church taboo and became romantically involved. “Some people see me as a devil, something dirty,” said the woman, who, along with the priest she is involved with, agreed to discuss their situation, sitting for an interview at a hotel in a city far from his parish. Reporter Elisabetta Povoledo hit The Google and found that An online search using “in love with a priest” produces blog after blog about church-crossed lovers, in any number of languages. There are support groups on social media, including Facebook groups for women. One group of 26 women even petitioned Pope Francis to change the church’s requirement of celibacy for priests, and relieve their suffering. Read more
Thirty-two members of the Iranian parliament are currently pushing a bill that proposes this: … walking dogs, trading them or keeping them at home will be punishable by 74 lashes or a fine of 1m to 10m Tomans [an equivalent of $320 to $3,200]. The bill says that Walking and playing with animals such as dogs and monkeys outdoors and in public places are harmful to the health and the peace of other people, especially kids and women, and are against our Islamic culture. Read more
We’ve met Harlem Pastor James David Manning before, back when he warned African-American women that “white homos” will take their men, and when he wished cancer, syphilis, HIV, and hellfire on gay-rights supporters. Manning still isn’t taking his meds, I guess. If you thought his previous rants were bizarre, well, you ain’t heard nothing yet. This week, the good pastor released a video in which he warns that Starbucks coffees are flavored with the “semen of sodomites.” Apparently, that’s a reference to a new ad for the coffee peddler in which two drag artists perform: American Idol star Adore Delano and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bianca Del Rio. The commercial was too much for Manning, who appears to be fighting against man-on-man action with the same hotblooded zeal that distinguished totally straight folks like Pastor Ted Haggard and the Reverend George Rekers. This is how he came to learn — and broadcast — the truth about Semengate: Pastor James David Manning, of the ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem, claimed last week that Starbucks was “ground zero” for Ebola, which is being spread by “upscale sodomites.” His remarks sparked a protest in which gay rights advocates handed out free coffee outside his church — which has provoked Manning into another attack on Starbucks. He said in [a subsequent] video rant: “They had a big bucket of Starbucks coffee. They said that this church is a hate church, and that I’m a hate preacher.” Citing a satirical news report — which he appeared to take seriously — Manning said: “Starbucks is a place where these types frequent and a lot of body fluids are exchanged there.” Then it gets, I dunno, almost weird. Watch and listen: Read more
