Christian ‘discipline’

When it comes to issues of morality, I take the attitude of live and let live. If people are not harming others, then I think that they should be given a great deal of leeway for their actions. Similarly, consenting adults who are of sound mind should be allowed to live their lives as they wish. Since this approach to morality does not use as its basis religious texts written by men thousands of years ago when standards of morality were less enlightened than they are now, it is bound to come into conflict from time to time with the moral standards of religions. [Read more…]

Pray away the gay goes astray, ole!

The group Exodus International, a Christian ministry that tried to ‘pray away the gay’ (which I have to admit is a pretty catchy slogan) has suddenly announced that they are closing shop. But that is not all, they are closing because they are admitting that they were wrong and their head Alan Chambers has issued a statement explaining his reasons and in the process given an apology that is remarkable for its unequivocal nature. [Read more…]

Beware of ‘dehumanizing stares’

One sign of an authoritarian society is how authorities react to those whom they feel are not properly subservient to them. The American people are slowly being conditioned to be obsequious to government power. Mike Spindell writes about a bill being discussed in the New York State Senate that would make it a felony to, among other things, ‘annoy’ a police officer in the course of his duties. He gives a long list of cases where the police have taken offense at people who were acting perfectly legally but not subserviently. [Read more…]

What does ‘IHS’ stand for?

Anyone who has ever been to a church has probably wondered what the letter IHS on the crosses and other icons stand for. I know I did but never bothered to actually find out, limiting myself to making guesses during the times when my mind wandered during the ceremony. I remember thinking that maybe it stood for ‘In His Service’ or, as I got older and more sophisticated in my wild guesses, for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, Savior’ in some other language, say Greek, with I standing for the J sound and the H for the N sound. [Read more…]

Breatharian to quit trying to live on light

You may recall Navenna Shine, a ‘breatharian’ who had decided to forego all nourishment and live on light alone. Fortunately she has decided to stop her ‘experiment’ today. She gives her reasons in a long statement. It consists partly of practical reasons (she seems to be running out of money and her phone and internet services will be cut off today) and partly because she says that the world may not be ready for this dramatic way of living and people may try to copy her without the careful preparation necessary and die as a consequence. [Read more…]