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.
Which Patheos blogger said this? I swear, we’ve probably watched eight rounds of curling during the Olympics and I still have no idea what the rules actually are. Are they trying to get all of their pucks (is that thing a puck?) on the bull’s-eye? Are they trying to just land one in the middle? I have no idea, and at the end of every match I’m honestly confused at why the team who won, actually won. No one in my family agrees on the rules either because the whole game is just straight up confusing even though it looks simple. Now, I could solve this problem by looking up the rules to the game online, but I’ve never been one to take the easy way to do anything. Christianity is a lot like this. No one completely understands how the game is supposed to be played. Everyone on the team has their own idea as to what the focus should be, and which rules are important. Folks watching from the outside? They’re just as confused as we are even if they don’t always realize it. Sadly, we often settle for arguing about the rules while sitting in the bleachers rather than learning by taking a chance and just getting out on the ice. Those of us on the ice? We’re all just trying to figure it out as we play, even when we talk a big game about strategy. Read more
If you’re concerned that parents feel constrained by law to hit their children, State Rep. Gail Finney, a Kansas Democrat, is rushing to your side. A Kansas lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow teachers, caregivers and parents to spank children hard enough to leave marks. Current Kansas law allows spanking that doesn’t leave marks. State Rep. Gail Finney, a Democrat from Wichita, says she wants to allow up to 10 strikes of the hand and that could leave redness and bruising. The bill also would allow parents to give permission to others to spank their children. It would continue to ban hitting a child with fists, in the head or body, or with a belt or switch. Read more
On its Erasmus blog, which covers religion and public policy, the Economist casts a weary eye on Denmark’s new law that outlaws the inhumane ritual slaughter of animals, concluding that it is a solution in search of a problem. No ritual slaughter takes place in Denmark on any meaningful scale, the magazine claims — not in slaughterhouses, anyway. Read more
One of the big media dustups of 2013 occurred when people watching the History Channel’s miniseries The Bible noticed an uncanny similarity between Satan (portrayed by Moroccan actor Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni) and a certain politician: When producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey rejiggered their original footage for a 135-minute feature film called Son of God, out next week, the devil ended up without a single scene. Read more
