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.
Aww. Ain’t conciliation grand? [T]here is at least one sphere of Egyptian contemporary life where interfaith cooperation perseveres, and that is at weekly exorcisms performed by one of the country’s most celebrated priests, Father Sama’an Ibrahim. He is one of the few priests in Egypt who can preform exorcisms — not even the Coptic Pope can — and his reputation for expelling demons of all kinds extends well beyond his Christian flock. … Read more
Do you have any idea how oppressed and persecuted American Christians are? So oppressed and persecuted that in order to prove it, pastors in Ohio called the local cops and requested to be taken into custody in front of their congregations. You heard right. The histrionic clergymen staged mock arrests — with the help of publicly funded police officers no less — to drive home how severely their Jesus faith has come under attack. Watch: Read more
Would you allow a doctor to inject you with a magical substance that will remove all pain for the rest of your life? If that sounds too good to be true, it’s in part because the doctor, John Michael Lonergan, 67, is a convicted felon — a former federal prison inmate who was convicted on eight felony counts (involving tax evasion, mail fraud, and healthcare fraud) in Ohio. Post-verdict, that state’s medical board indefinitely revoked Lonergan’s license to practice medicine. But after Lonergan, a native Oklahoman, got out of jail and moved back home, the Oklahoma medical board voted to allow Lonergan to be a doctor “under state supervision.” The disgraced physician settled close to Edmond, Oklahoma, where, a local news outlet claims, he has been peddling an all-purpose painkiller that lasts until you die — which may be sooner than you think, considering that he allegedly won’t tell what’s in the injection. All Lonergan will say to patients is that the remedy is called “the Jesus shot.” Oh, and the other thing he’ll say is, “That’ll be 300 dollars please.” Read more
BBH is a powerhouse London ad agency that made a pretty entertaining U.K. Christmas commercial for KFC late last year. With a daft, schmaltzy pop song, the two-and-a-half minute spot mocked both seasonal sappiness and unchecked materialism. Adweek named it its “Ad of the Day”: The spot… opens with a showdown in a store between angry moms. “I almost tore your hair out for the last doll in the store,” one sings. “But the things that once divided us don’t matter anymore,” the other one sings in reply. And we’re off on a grandiose musical journey, as traditional holiday foes (carolers and carolees, snowballers and snowballees, Santa Claus and incontinent children) put aside their differences and bond over the soothing comfort of 11 herbs and spices. It’s all amusingly goofy and completely over the top. Read more
