It’s very strange, but lately I find myself paying less attention to atheist white men on Islam, and more to ex-Muslims like Heina, Maryam, Tauriq, Taslima, and Marwa (have you noticed how deep the talent pool is here at FtB?), and those are leading me to other ex-Muslim authors like Kunwar Khuldune Shahid and the other writers at Ex-Muslim blogs, and I’m finding my view of Islam is become a lot messier and more complicated. I’m simultaneously less sympathetic to the religion and more interested in the people.

I consider increasing complexity to be a good thing. Diminishing the influence of the uninformed is also a good thing.

We have a major Catholic sex abuse case going on in Minnesota, and it’s slowly coming to an end. Right now, it’s like a game of “good news, bad news,” though.

Bad news:

Those claims were bolstered by an MPR News investigation last fall that showed top church officials continued to protect priests accused of abuse. One priest, the Rev. Clarence Vavra, had privately admitted to sexually abusing a child on an Indian reservation in South Dakota in the 1970s. MPR News found him living half a block from a school. In another case, Harry Walsh, a former priest who was accused of abusing two children, had been hired by Wright County to teach sex ed to at-risk teenagers.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn did not notify police or the public about the allegations against Vavra and Walsh and kept other clerics in ministry despite allegations of sexual misconduct, according to documents obtained by MPR News. Flynn and Nienstedt also gave special monthly payments to priests who had admitted to sexually assaulting children.

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In an astonishing feat of hypocrisy, a Muslim NFL player has been penalized for kneeling and touching his forehead to the ground after a touchdown. “Unsportsmanlike conduct,” the officials say — were they afraid that he was going to unleash the terrible power of Allah against the other team?

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Perhaps you’ve heard about the disgraceful spectacle of extraordinarily dogmatic Jewish men refusing to be seated on an airplane next to a woman. It’s a revolting exhibition of religiously-sanctioned bigotry, but there you have it…people are allowed to be bigots. We don’t usually make special accommodations for bigoted ideas, though.

But I have a solution. A simple solution.

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Jeffrey Goldberg visited the Creation “Museum”, and asked the question, “Were There Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?”. I can answer that one.

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I’m not a personal fan of Sunday Assembly — that’s fine if it floats your boat (it doesn’t mine), but the whole idea of aping a church bugs me a little bit. Is this the best we can aspire to? Developing our own hokey rituals?

But at least it’s not the worst model. The day movement atheists start promoting services patterned on Heath Mooneyham’s Ignite church of Joplin, Missouri is the day I become a Catholic. Wait, no, I retract that — there’s too much danger it could actually happen.

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Atheism is important — that I’ve become disenchanted with the front men for the movement does not diminish the significance of the cause. If you want to understand why, read Vyckie Garrison’s story, or watch her tell it.

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Don’t give American creationists ideas — this would be their ideal world. ISIS has set their rules for education.

In swaths of Syria now controlled by ISIS, children can no longer study math or social studies. Sports are out of the question. And students will be banned from learning about elections and democracy.

…

Books cannot include any reference to evolution. And teachers must say that the laws of physics and chemistry “are due to Allah’s rules and laws.”

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All the religions are seething with jealousy now, I’m sure. Look at the nifty present the Russian Orthodox Church got.

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