Female Mutilation: We Don’t Know Why We Do It, but Religion Tells Us To

Sheelan, second from right and age 7, thinks her mother’s giving her a party. But she’s about to get cut.
Here’s the religious bone-chiller of the day, from the Washington Post:
For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual
The Widespread Practice of Female Circumcision in Iraq’s North Highlights The Plight of Women in a Region Often Seen as [...]

Obama & Warren: Way Too Cute

I’ve found myself since Friday posting a lot of comments on newspapers’ websites concerning the incoming President’s selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural.
I’ve used phrases like “megachurch huckster,” so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve also posted my displeasure on Obama’s “transition” website, change.gov.
This is not just an [...]

A Prayer Before Sex, a Song of Songs

For Those About to Make Love
Immortal One, now we’re getting naked, as you made us in deep affection, so that we can make holy love to one another: We praise you for the gift of this relationship; nothing reveals you more clearly to our souls than the face and body and spirit of our loved [...]

Dirk Vanden’s Remarkable Novel “All Is Well”

I’ve just finished reading Dirk Vanden’s magnum opus, “All Is Well.”
This guy started out writing stroke books for money, but ended up authoring real novels—all the more remarkable because they first appeared just two years after Stonewall. Gone were the sissy stereotypes, the internalized homophobia, the clueless guesses by Straight pornographers of what motivates Gay [...]

Reading Genesis

Part of my Advent discipline (an opportunity I’ve freely taken, not a duty) is to begin reading the Old Testament in something like chronological order—by which I mean not when it was composed (which often took centuries), but when it purports to tell of events. This must, of course, begin in Genesis—which puts me right [...]