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.
I don’t know much about the origin of this video that I just came across. Boasting unusually high production value, it’s a slick propaganda piece that was (re?)posted a year ago by YouTube user IndiaEternal under the title “Pakistan MUST watch this video to respect HINDUISM.” But the content is much broader than the old India-Pakistan conflict, addressing the need for religious tolerance across the world. In the end, oddly, the video doesn’t place the blame for religious strife on believers and their never-ending wars over whose God is better, but instead focuses on godless people like you and me, who stubbornly stand in the way of world peace. And it does so by impugning secular higher education with an increasingly popular religious trope: that of an atheist college professor whose God-loving students end up teaching him a lesson. Read more
Seven years ago, when I became fast friends with Benjamin Corey — a preacher, theologian, and blogger — he was a Christian fundamentalist. And back then, he cringed when he saw the word “Christmas” rendered as “Xmas.” He would fume (though mercifully not within my earshot), How dare those godless atheists try to take the baby Jesus out of my manger, and block out the word Christ with a big, black, X? Since then, Corey (many of his friends call him by his last name) has had a change of heart. A student of ancient Greek, he’s discovered that (drum roll…) there is no secular conspiracy to remove Christ from Christmas. Read more
Paul Crouch died of heart failure on Saturday, at 79. Forty years ago, he founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network, now the country’s most successful religious TV enterprise. In a good year, TBN takes in close to $100,000,000 in tax-exempt donations, mostly from lower-income Americans. If you’re not familiar with Crouch and his wife Janice, they are the Jim and Tammy Faye that time forgot. Here’s a little flavor: Janice Crouch, called “Mama” on the air, is known for her pink-tinged wigs, which look like huge swirls of cotton candy, and for talking emotionally about the Lord’s blessings. Mr. Crouch, or “Papa,” is relentlessly upbeat as he quotes flurries of Bible verses on signature programs like “Praise the Lord.” The New York Times published an exposé of the Crouches’ financial tricks last year. It tells you volumes about how the darling duo spent all that revenue from donations, TV rights, and investments. For instance: Read more
It’s a public secret that the (Noah’s) Ark Encounter, a planned 800-acre theme park in Kentucky that is a twin to the Creation Museum, is having financial difficulties. According to this article on Kentucky.com, the Biblical tourist attraction is two years and millions of dollars behind schedule. The money pinch may soon lessen thanks to a generous $62,000,000 bond issue being offered by Williamstown, Kentucky, population 3,600. The city, which has already granted the project a 75 percent break in property taxes over 30 years, won’t have to repay the bonds, according to the bond-offering documents. That’s good, experts say, because the bonds are not rated, which makes them speculative, or “junk” bonds. … The taxable bonds are backed by future revenues from the project, which organizers believe will attract more than 1 million visitors in the first year. An investment professional, Gene Gard, said of the bond issue: “You could look at it almost as a loan to a family member and not be as concerned about being paid back.” Read more
