Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1827

More Voices, This Time From Liberals, Suggest That Charlie Hebdo More or Less Brought the Massacre On Itself

[Caution: This post contains brain-crunching sentimentslike "They asked for an early grave" and "Shooting up the Charlie Hebdo office was understandable."]

With a tip of the hat toReason, I’d like to present alittle potpourri of, um, interesting responses to Wednesday’smassacre.The authors, to varying degrees, place at least somepartof the blame on the victims.

Richard Seymour at Jacobin:

All one can have at this point are the correct but platitudinous points about there being no justification f...

Bill Maher: “There Are No Great Religions. They’re All Stupid and Dangerous”

On Jimmy Kimmel‘s show the other night, Bill Maher gave his first take on the Charlie Hebdo attacks, calling out liberals who tiptoe around the religious angle of this story:

This has to stop, and unfortunately, a lot of the liberals, who are my tribe — I am a proud liberal… I’m asking them to turn toward the truth as I have been for quite a while. I’m the liberal in this debate… I’m for free speech. To be a liberal, you have to stand up for liberal principles. It’s not my fault that the part...

Catholic Hate for Charlie Hebdo Doesn’t Stop With Bill Donohue

Check out Opus Publicum:

Charlie Hebdo(CH) is a low-class, often thoughtless, publication which any decent society should have shut down a long time ago.

Mr. Opus is pissedabout

… the failure of French society, now long broken away from its Catholic roots, to suppress the paper.

In other words, letCatholicismdominate theaffairs of the state, so that all manner ofimpudent secular pests may be dealt with once and for all!

[T]here was nothing inherently blasphemous in CH’s various negative depictions...

U.S. State Department Defends Raif Badawi Just Before He is Lashed 50 Times for “Insulting Islam”

It doesn’t look like there’s much we can do now. Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger, will receive the first batch of his 1,000 lashes today. All for the “crime” of running a progressive website that called for, among other things, religious tolerance and women’s rights.

Yesterday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement in defense of Badawi:

We are greatly concerned by reports that human rights activist Raif Badawi will start facing the inhumane punishment of a 1,000 lashes, in additio...

“Traditional Values” Are Losing Ground with Voters and We’re All Better Off as a Result

When you hear politicians talk about “traditional values,” it’s usually just code for anti-gay, anti-women, pro-Christianist thinking. Saying gay people should not be allowed to marry may be politically toxic these days, but no one has a problem with “values,” right?

I’m happy to say that voters, who may finally be catching on to the con, are caring less and less about traditional values these days. Aaron Blake at the Washington Post explains:

Shortly after the 2004 election, a CNN/Opinion Rese...

Texas Republican’s Bill Would Withhold Salary from State Employees Who, in Future, Issue Gay Marriage Licenses

A new bill in Texas sponsored by Republican Rep. Cecil Bell would cut off the salary of any state official who issued a wedding license to a gay couple… if that ever became legal. (Texas is currently one of only 14 states where gay couples can’t get married.)

[Bell] said he filed HB 623 to prevent any federal court or federal action from allowing gay marriage in Texas.

“The federal government is trying to act to create moral standards, and that’s just not acceptable,” Bell said.

His bill says ta...

Don’t Celebrate a Best Selling Book if You Think It’s Okay to Game the System

***Update***: Metaxas attempted to clarify his position to Warren Throckmorton here, though I’m still as confused as Warren.

…

Christian author Eric Metaxas‘ latest book Miracles just hit the New York Times best sellers list.

As it turns out, however, Metaxas also made an interesting comment to Christianity Today regarding buying your way onto that list — like disgraced Pastor Mark Driscoll did:

“Anyone thinking there is something pure about that list does not understand the system and how it wor...

Why Do Cartoonists Draw Insulting Images of Muhammad? (Spoiler: Not Just to Upset the Religious)

Philosopher Stephen Law offers an explanation for why cartoonists lampoon faith:

… more often than not, the lampooning is done with the intention of shattering, if only for a moment, the protective façade of reverence and deference that has been erected around some iconic figure or belief, so that we can all catch a glimpse of how things really are. At such times, lampooning can become great art.

Over the past few years, a lot of those cartoons have been drawn in response to the outrage by reli...

Myanmar Anger Over Buddha With Headphones Shows No Sign of Abating; Bar Owner Now Faces Four Years in Prison

Remember the recent case in Myanmar of the bar owners who got arrested and threatened with serious jail time after they’d Facebook-postedacolorfulimage of a Buddha wearing headphones?

Despite removing the image and replacing it with a statement apologizing for “embarrassing ignorance,” [New Zealander Philip] Blackwood was arrested on December 10 along with nightspot owner Tun Thurein, 40, and co-worker Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26.

NBC News has an update, including this stark fact:

Blackwood is being hel...

U.S. Strangely Missing from Map of “Top 50 Countries Where Christians Face the Greatest Persecution”

Open Doors USA, a non-profit group that tracks Christian persecution around the world (and helps Christians in need), released its annual World Watch List yesterday, highlighting the “50 countries where the persecution of Christians is most severe.”

Incredibly (to the surprise of Religion Right leaders, I’m sure), the United States didn’t make the cut:

I don’t think the Open Doors people realize that American Christians have it really rough.

Sometimes, Christian pharmacists are given money and t...