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.
Tonight at 9:00 (ET) on Nightline Prime, ABC will be broadcasting a program about so-called Purity Balls. They’re like debutante balls (gowns and tiaras are everywhere) except that the central event is a virginity pledge that teenage girls swear to God — and to dad. Last fall, the ABC team attended “the Super Bowl of Purity Balls” at the regal Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, five dozen fathers signed a purity covenant, promising “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.” But of course it’s really the girls who pledge — abstinence. As the father of two pre-teen kids (both girls), I hope that, when they’re old enough, they’ll be very choosy — that is, discerning — with their sex partners. But I can’t imagine being involved (and invested) in their virginity to the extent that the parents attending the Broadmoor affair are. To each his or her own, but the notion that a young woman is somehow diminished in value once she’s had sex seems pretty misogynistic to me. Read more
The Unitarian Universalist Association is selling its headquarters and three other buildings in Beacon Hill, the toniest part of Boston, to move to much less stately digs in an “innovation district” on the city’s outskirts. The New York Times, under the headline “Denominations Downsizing and Selling Assets in More Secular Era,” reports that that kind of thing has been happening all over. Read more
A priest and a physicist walk into a bar… and it’s the same guy. Possibly minus the bar part, such is life for John Cunningham, S.J., Ph.D., an associate professor of physics (and chair of the physics department) at Loyola University in Chicago. His bio says that his research interests focus on experimental particle and astrophysics, cosmic rays, dark energy, and heavy quark physics. When he’s not studying and teaching, Cunningham is a Catholic priest — a Jesuit, to be precise… Read more
America’s biggest hater is dead. Fred Phelps was 84. In 2010, Huffington Post reporter Joshua Kors asked how the frontman of the widely reviled Westboro Baptist Church saw his own demise. Kors: Everybody’s going to die at some point. I’m wondering about your thoughts on going to heaven. Phelps: The Lord himself should descend for me with the angels. I’m not looking for an undertaker — I’m looking for an uppertaker. Kors: Describe that heaven for me. Phelps: When the time comes, I will leave… Read more
