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.
Thirty years ago, the Monty Python team released The Meaning of Life, a movie that (spoiler alert) reveals that said meaning is “Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” I can live with that. Putting the lie to the assertion that atheists hate Christmas, I’d like to wish everyone a… Read more
Not a lot needs to be said here, because the video says it all. Some Christians really can point at a perfect summer sky and claim it’s green with yellow polka dots. Just as they can come to a public atheist display, cover it up with a banner about angels, and claim that their actions are intended as a show of love and support for non-believers: “What we’re hoping that it’s possible that if we as Christians show our love and… Read more
Last Saturday, the New York Times had a story about the bells of the (Catholic) Church of Our Savior on a relatively quiet block of midtown Manhattan. The church’s neighbors had begun referring to the electronic, amplified bell sounds as “Chinese water torture.” It wasn’t so much the volume as the number of chimes that frayed their nerves. For years, the bells tolled twice a day, at noon and again at 6 p.m., but in September, when a new pastor arrived at the church, on Park Avenue and 38th Street in Murray Hill, he stepped up the chime schedule to 13 times a day, with additional tolls on the weekends. … The new pastor, the Rev. Robert J. Robbins, began a daily regimen of hourly chimes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., consisting of the tones of a hymn followed by a chiming of the hour. When a group of Murray Hill residents, Christians included, repeatedly asked the church if the bell-ringing could please revert to the old schedule, they got bupkis. Read more
While skimming news headlines on Google, I swear I thought this one said Church alliance pays for those with drugs, alcohol addiction. Such charity of the financial kind would have been refreshing. Alas, it turns out that I missed an “r” and that the church team is praying — not paying — for addicts to get help. The initiative would scarcely have been worth mentioning in this space if it hadn’t been for the final paragraph of the piece. The group passes out signs that carry the logo Praying Against Drugs and Alcohol to interested community members. The phone number listed on the sign, (606) 836-0442, connects callers with the FADE Drug Task Force, where they can report drug activities or get information on where they or others they might know can get the help they need to deal with addiction. Read more
