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.
Centuries ago, there was a village in the Spanish countryside by the name of Castrillo Mota de Judíos, which means “Castrillo Jews’ Hill.” During the Inquisition, the hamlet was rebaptized Castrillo Matajudíos, or “Castrillo Kill the Jews.” Now, the 60 families who live there will decide together whether the slightly offensive current name will be restored to the less upsetting original. Read more
Many politicians aren’t above tailoring their opinions to suit what people want to hear, sometimes zigging this way for one specific audience and then zagging for another. Take Bob Marshall, a Virginia GOP delegate now running for Congress. We previously featured Marshall on this blog in 2010, after he said this when he opposed funding Planned Parenthood: “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment, Christians would suggest.” So, simply put, disabled children are God’s way to punish women who had an abortion. When the heat of subsequent news stories made Marshall a little uncomfortable, he tried to weasel his way out by denying what he’d said: Read more
In 2012, a married couple from Massachusetts, Alain Beret and James Fairbanks, came across a for-sale 44-room mansion in Northridge that they decided they wanted to buy and turn into a hotel. The seller was the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. The negotiations seemed to go well until the padres began to imagine what Fairbanks and Beret might do with the place. Would they perhaps (shudder) have gay weddings there? The very thought was too much, so the diocese instructed its real-estate broker to politely tell Fairbanks and Beret to buzz off. The reason behind the refusal might have never come to light if not for a dumb mistake by the broker. When she emailed the prospective buyers, she inadvertently sent along the message from Monsignor Thomas Sullivan to her. Read more
People who dismiss the Bible as just a bunch of man-made stories are now as numerous as those who are so enamored of the Good Book that they read it at least four times a week: The number of Americans who read Scripture at least four times a week and believe that it is the inspired word of God has fallen to just under 1 in 5, according to new research from the American Bible Society (ABS). The same percentage of Americans (19 percent) are now “antagonistic” toward the Bible, reading it less than once per month and believing it is a book of teachings written by men that contain stories and advice. “Antagonistic” is a loaded descriptor, something the ABS belatedly realized. So after their initial release, earlier this week, the survey results were recast as follows, according to Christianity Today: Read more
The Mississippi legislature decided in 2011 that all seventh- and eighth-graders in the state should undergo sex education. It’s not been an unqualified success, to put it mildly. About one in eight school districts have not implemented any sex education at all, and where it has been put in place, male and female students are instructed in separate classrooms — and condom demonstrations are prohibited by law. Creative educators may, however, use a sock and their own foot to simulate what using a condom is like. (I kid you not.) And then there’s this: Read more
