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.
It takes a lot of creative reading if you want to think of the Bible as a truly “Good Book.” So maybe its no big surprise that the staff of a Bible store in Emporia, Kansas interpreted a purported Mark Twain quip about Christianity in a positive light, even writing it on a slate tablet and putting it in the shop window. Read more
As Christopher Hitchens was slipping into death, did he embrace Christianity? As we’ve seen, that calumny is being peddled in Larry Alex Taunton’s new book, The Faith of Christopher Hitchens. Condemnations of Taunton’s psychic grave robbery flew fast and furious… and now right-wing darling David Frum has written the best takedown yet. Read more
About three times a day, and maybe more, a Pakistani woman is killed for “dishonoring” her family. But to whom does the dishonor really go? How does a sentient human being, with malice aforethought, brutally murder anyone, much less his or her own child or sister? What are we to do with people so threatened and upset by love that they douse their kin in kerosene and light the fateful match? A woman in Pakistan burned her 17-year-old daughter alive on Wednesday to punish her for marrying against the family’s wishes, the latest in a series of so-called “honor killings” that claim the lives of nearly 1,000 women every year in the conservative Muslim country. Police say Zeenat Rafiq’s mother, Parveen, tied her to a cot and drenched her with kerosene before lighting her on fire. Neighbors in the congested, working-class neighborhood in the eastern city of Lahore came running when they heard the screams, but family members kept them from entering the house, said Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby. Read more
