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.
Larry Craig. Ted Haggard. George Rekers. There’s quite a range of pastors and politicians who, after years of making money off of demonizing gay people, turn out to really like rent boys and male prostitutes or who can’t contain their wide stance in a men’s bathroom. Now there’s a very special newcomer to that august company. Meet Rev. Michael Abromovich, pastor of Set Free Christian Ministry in the fundamentalist-Christian hotbed of Colorado Springs. Read more
Today, on Stupor Bowl Superb Owl Super Bowl Sunday, we learned via Hemant and the Christian Post that there are more than a dozen Bible verses that predict a Denver Broncos win — and that there are just as many that give the nod to the Seattle Seahawks. We’ve also observed, courtesy of the Public Religion Research Institute, that 50% of Americans think God will determine the winner of the Super Bowl, and that half of the people in that group pray to God to guide their team to victory. (Amazingly, the Almighty is able to give roughly half of them exactly what they asked for!) Noting the same survey, CJ Werleman at Alternet raises a good point. Believers have put their pro-prayer fingerprints all over the Super Bowl, CJ says. Without a doubt. It’s hardly surprising; remember the generally positive response Tim Tebow got in his college days when he put Bible verses on his eye black? Read more
And again a metzitzah b’peh makes the news. As we’ve seen before, the procedure is carried out by unlicensed and unregulated mohels who, after cutting away the child’s foreskin and tearing the membrane with their fingernails, place their mouths on the boy’s penis to suck away the blood. Since 2000, metzitzah b’pehs have been responsible for at least thirteen cases of herpes transmission — including two resulting in the death of the child, and two more in which the boys suffered brain damage. (It’s not clear to me whether those numbers, released by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, are countrywide or New-York-only.) Now there is another infant victim. From the Forward: Read more
The always-droll team at Cracked worries about many sudden signs that the end times are finally here — including the polar vortex, heat waves, unprecedented Chinese smog, and dinosaur erotica. Cracked’s Hillery Alley says that the apocalypse is upon us and produces five news reports (in addition to the four mentions above) that bolster her case. I decided to turn it into a little quiz. The following five photos are associated with January news reports that would make Harold Camping wannabes do a little jig. Can you look at each photo and name the news event? Read more
