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.
This American Life, the radio program headed by Ira Glass, has been recycling some interesting old episodes of late. The other day, this one, from 1998, made it to broadcast again. It’s about summer camps, and it contains a segment about listeners’ memories of their camp days. Two of the accounts stood out for me, because they described a religion-induced mental cruelty that made my blood turn cold. Read more
