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.
It’s not hard to spot what’s wrong with this picture … unless you’re running a Muslim school in the United Kingdom. That’s not a one-time slip-up, but a pervasive pattern at some Islamic schools, says the British Humanist Association — even though this kind of thing has been against the law for the better part of 40 years. Read more
Like the 80’s Moral Majority that was neither, same-sex marriage opponents have an odd inclination to think of themselves as a mighty army, rather than as a few battalions of increasingly scattered troops. Data journalist Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog looks at the numbers: According to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, only 41 percent of Americans oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry. But that same 41 percent has a highly skewed perception of where the rest of the country stands: nearly two-thirds of same-sex marriage opponents erroneously think most Americans agree with them. And only two in 10 same-sex marriage opponents realize that the majority of Americans support marriage equality. Read more
Most people looking for asylum in the United States say they’ve been persecuted in their home country — sometimes imprisoned and tortured. Life-and-death stuff. Real terror, real danger. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are a little different. They hail from Germany, and the worst that happened to them there was that their government told them they were expected to abide by the national Schulpflicht — mandatory state-sponsored schooling for all children aged six and older. Not wishing to taint their Christian purity with the worldly teachings of Germany’s schools, the Romeikes fled to the United States — and applied for political asylum — on the invitation of a network of Christian homeschoolers represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Romeikes’ case, setting off a choir of right-wing voices howling that if we needed more proof of the Obama administration’s hostility towards Christianity, this was it. Read more
Give Father Harry Jenkins, of the Christ Episcopal Church in Slidell, Louisiana, props for innovation: You can order your burgers at the drive-thru window. Or pick up your dry cleaning and do your banking. On Wednesday, a Slidell church will offer “Ashes to Go,” during two periods when motorists can drive by the church to receive ashes on their foreheads in observance of Ash Wednesday. Without leaving their vehicles. Read more
Let’s see how many pro-life Christians unequivocally support a British court’s decision that a baby is to undergo lifesaving blood transfusions despite his parents’ religious protestations. A High Court judge has given permission for a baby boy to undergo blood transfusions during an operation notwithstanding his parents’ objections on religious grounds. Mr. Justice Keehan had been told by a specialist that the baby — whose parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses — had complex heart disease and no ”long-term prospect of survival” if he did not have cardiac surgery. The baby’s parents had agreed to surgery but said they could not consent to their son — who is a few weeks old — receiving blood. Keehan called the parent’s opposition to blood transfusions “understandable,” but ruled in favor of the medical treatment anyway with an eye on the boy’s best interests. Read more
