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.
Recently, one morning, in a public school in Spring Hill, Florida… this happened. To a fourth-grader. As the students recited [the Pledge of Allegiance], teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald took the boy’s wrist and placed his hand over his heart. He protested, pulling his arm down and reminding her he was a Jehovah’s Witness. “You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag,” Daigle-McDonald said, according to a statement the boy gave to a school administrator. The next day, Daigle-McDonald again placed the boy’s hand over his heart. She then addressed the class. “In my classroom, everyone will do the pledge; no religion says that you can’t do the pledge,” several students told a school administrator, according to a report. “If you can’t put your hand on your heart, then you need to move out of the country.” Read more
The VineLife Church in Longmont, Colorado, may now be referred to as the ViceLife Church. Two months ago, Colorado cops police arrested 35-year-old Vineland pastor Jason Allen Roberson (pictured below). They charged him with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful sexual contact, and stalking. Roberson is suspected of coercing a 15-year-old girl under his pastoral care into a sexual relationship that lasted seven years. Earlier this year, his colleagues found out about it and suspended Roberson pending an internal investigation, but never notified the authorities. After the victim went to the police, the church stonewalled the police probe that ensued. Read more
Munem Wasif is a Bangladeshi photographer who’s been capturing, in glorious black and white, “the intersection of Islam and culture” in his home country. His work is featured in the new online issue of Time. The caption under this particular photo reads: “Hena’s mother and sisters cry after her death. As punishment for being raped, Hena was whipped to death by local villagers and an Imam.” Read more
Imagine: You’re a priest. A group of Catholic terrorists has kidnapped another victim who they believe is a traitor. After a few days of violent interrogation, they’re ready to kill him and “disappear” his body. The devout terrorists ask you to come to their hideout to give the victim his last rites; they say that now that they’re done with him, they don’t mind him going to heaven. Do you go? Morally, it isn’t a black-and-white issue. It is your belief that if you do what’s asked, you’ll save a man’s eternal soul. You’ll also buy influence with the terrorists, potentially giving you a chance to affect the outcome of future kidnappings. But you also know that by providing your religious services, you’ll be making it easier for the captors to pull the trigger — and visit deep, prolonged anguish upon the murdered man’s family, who’ll never know what happened to him. Plus, you’ll make it easier for the gang to kill future victims. Read more
If you’re interested in gazing up at a 40-feet bronze statue of Jesus, try to get to Syria before al-Qaeda fundies blow it up. From the Washington Post: A giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war. The gargantuan Son of God was resurrected erected on Cherubim mountain a few weeks ago, positioned on a base that brings the top of his head to 105 feet. The whole project is, as they say, a leap of faith. Read more
