Category: Culture

Episcopals, Anglicans, and free speech

I seem to be on a free speech kick here (how better than to be true to one’s own beliefs?) when I see that the American Episcopalians have somehow met the demands of their Anglican counterparts to not ordain any more gay bishops and not to bless same-sex unions. At least from this article, it seems the Anglicans in England and Africa have succeeded in controling those Anglicans (Episcopals) in the US. Amazing the role religion still plays in the world outside of radical Islam. This demand by a group of conservative religious across the world to tell how the American church how to believe and act seems more and more like the same criticisms against Catholicism.

I thought that was why the Anglican Church was formed in the first place–to confront being told what to do by a corrupt group of wealthy men from far away? Perhaps history does repeat itself?

Free speech from the other side

Ayaan Hirisi AliI feel I just lamented how Columbia handled the free speech issue when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke there last week, when I read about Ayaan Hirisi Ali in today’s NY Times. She was a former member of the Dutch Parliament who left there and fled the Netherlands due to the credible death threats she received from Islamic extremists when she became critical of Islam. Hmm, this seems so unfortunate given the credibility the president of Iraq has been trying to gain by speaking at Ivy League USA about how the West has his country and people all wrong.

Granted, I do not know if their is a connection between Ayaan’s threats and Iran, but it seems to me that free speech should be done from and on both perspectives as a promotion of credibility. Then again, credibility seems somewhat subjective, doesn’t it?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at my Alma Mater

I wish I could have seen Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad at one of my Alma Maters last week, Columbia. President Bollinger introduced him, but in a way harsher than I thought fair for A. A world leader, B. An invited guest, and C. A controversial speaker who may have alienated himself from the audience but after such a straw-man set-up, looked pretty decent in comparison. Free speech is the very reason I blog here, and I think that the president’s confrontational introduction of the other president helped to reinforce the very self-righteousness that the Iranians commonly accuse Americans. Forget about some of the strange (and incorrect) claims that the Iranian president offered (can there really have not been a Jewish Holocaust in the 20th Century, or can there really not be a single homosexual in Iran right now?), I am just thinking here about the freedom of speech and the politeness that should be shown to an invited guest and (like him or not) a world leader who may have nuclear weapons.You be the judge:

For the videos of President Ahmadinejad himself, they can be found here.

Experimental cyber attack destroyed a generator

I read this story on CNN and it really made me pause and think about how vast the world of possible terrorist targets really is. In a nutshell:

Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned.

I suppose it is better to learn this in a test so we know what our vulnerabilities are. Suffice it to say, that I wonder the value of knowing the vulnerabilities if there are neither plans nor funding to fix them?

Six Arkansas nuns excommunicated for heresy

I read this article in CNN yesterday about six nuns who were excommunicated, which in Catholicism means they are no longer able to officially receive the sacraments and have been declared to be so far outside of Catholic teachings and beliefs that they have separated themselves from the faith (even though the process of excommunication means the Vatican or church officials formally throw them out). 

Ready to read about nuns who run guns to fight against oppressive regimes or nuns who lie down in front of meetings of bishops to confront them about the inability of women to be ordained, I was not ready to read about nuns who believe Mary, the mother of Jesus, speaks through one of them (and may in fact be Mary’s reincarnation).

Ahh, the wonders of organized religion never cease. This is a breadth of fresh air compaired to homosexuality, abortion, masturbation, divorce, and other Catholic no-no’s.