Category: Religion

Creation Can Be Cruel

Hey, the guys at Answers In Genesis made Cruel Site of the Day this week!

I don’t work for the hosting company that hosts Answers In Genesis anymore, so I guess I could say whatever I want about them now, and talk about how it made me feel knowing that I was making a living helping them purvey their ideas.

Heck, I could probably even say whatever I like about the frequently-renamed business of Richard De Vos (once known as Amway), who largely funded that company, while I’m at it.

But I think I’ll save that for another time.

Scare Quotes

Cops: Teacher accused of sexual assault ‘wed’ girl in pagan ritual

I read this and I can’t help wondering if they keep putting “wed” and “married” in scare quotes because it was:

a) same-sex
b) pagan
c) illegal cause she was 14 years old (age of marriage in MI is 18 without parental consent, 16 with).

I hope it was c).

Local pagans are trying to make sure people don’t get the idea that paganism is somehow all about sexual abuse, which is not that surprising cause the first article was pretty lurid about the whole pagan thing, with accusations of brainwashing and so on.

I didn’t even know West Michigan had local pagans till a couple of ’em moved in across the street from us, in an apartment formerly occupied by Mormons…

The Clown of God

I was browsing children’s books at B&N today and I came across The Clown of God by Tomi dePaola. I remembered reading it many years ago and it making me cry. It still works.

I thought of getting it for my kids, but I don’t think they’re quite old enough yet for a bedtime story where the main character dies at the end, and their father bawls his eyes out every time he reads it.

But someday.

This is What Happens To Saints

Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/08/2004 | Priest who led Druids resigns

“He’s a saint,” said Jessica Kenworthey, who belongs to another church but attends services at St. James’ with her husband, Mark, who is a member. “This is what happens to saints.”

This little witch hunt might seem to be of interest only to Episcopalians, but PJ points out that it’s a small part of a big picture that others might find disturbing.

This whole thing was instigated by a particularly sinister political organization called the “Insitute for Religion and Democracy,” which is dedicated to subverting mainline churches in favor of fundamentalism. The whole sequence of events is pretty creeptacular.