Defending The Catholic Faith, But Not The Pope. A Conversation With Mary The Catholic Graduate Student

June 14, 2012 By 8 Comments

Mary is a Catholic friend of mine. She was recently a graduate student in theology at a prestigious Catholic school. Previously we debated the Church’s attempt to have its schools and charities be exempted from laws requiring that they provide health plans that cover contraception. That was a vigorous three part debate: “Should Catholic Employers [...]

Filed Under: Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church 8 Comments

Catholic Icons For Super Heroes?

June 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

I enjoy super heroes on a mythic level, so in principle I was open to this idea and thought it an interesting prospect. But Igor Scalisi Palminteri’s art presenting super heroes in Catholic hagiographic poses and dress highlights that it is not only the distinctively Christian imagery I like so much in normal Catholic iconography, it’s the [...]

Filed Under: Arts, Comic Books, Comic Books, Comic Books, Novelties, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

CNN's Credulous Reporting on Catholicism

March 11, 2012 By 12 Comments

I’m watching CNN right now and cannot believe how thoroughly this report dispenses with all standards of journalistic evidence and detachment in presenting dubious miracle claims as straight facts with reasonable, undisputed evidence behind them. The first part of the report, which I wish I could find but CNN hasn’t seemed to put anywhere online [...]

Filed Under: Christianity, Christianity, News Discussion, News Discussion, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Tagged With: , , , , , , 12 Comments

Colbert Takes On His Church's Demands For Exemptions From Health Care Law

February 19, 2012 By 2 Comments

The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive Colbert’s remark about Bishop Bucks struck me as eerily like a comment on Camels With Hammers from someone named Lyra the week before:

Filed Under: Hilarious, Political Satire, Political Satire, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Satire, Satire Tagged With: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

The Vagina Ideologues

February 14, 2012 By 8 Comments

It was nice to see Jon Stewart finally have a chance to weigh in on last week’s absurd push from the Catholic Church to win the exemption from the law requiring employers to provide health insurance that covers contraception: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The [...]

Filed Under: Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Comedy, Comedy, Politics, Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Satire, Satire, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tagged With: , , , , , 8 Comments

The Catholic Church Wants Women Pregnant Against Their Wills

February 11, 2012 By 77 Comments

Before this week, I never thought particularly hard about the way the Catholic Church wants to enforce its policies against contraception. I think my default assumption was that they wanted Catholics to assent to such policies freely and without coercion, as matters of shared belief and conscience. The thought actually never crossed my mind that [...]

Filed Under: Law, Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Tagged With: , , , , , , 77 Comments

Religious Privilege and Grievance-Based Catholic Identity Politics on Full Display

February 7, 2012 By 12 Comments

In a column last week, Melinda Henneberger criticized the Obama administration’s refusal to exempt the Catholic Church from requirements it provide for its employees health insurance which would cover birth control at organizations it runs which have secular functions. The column is an extraordinary exemplification of religious entitlement, identity politics, and anti-secular, anti-democratic demands for [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Feminism, Feminism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Rape, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

"What Are The Limits of Church Authority In the Public Sphere?"

February 5, 2012 By 55 Comments

This is part 2 of a debate with Roman Catholic theology graduate student named Mary. In part 1, we introduced and began to debate the topic of whether or not universities, hospitals, and social agencies run by the Catholic Church should be exempted from laws requiring employers to provide their employees health insurance that covers [...]

Filed Under: Abortion, Abortion, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Bio-Medical Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Feminism, Feminism, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Law, Law, LGBTQAA, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 55 Comments

"Should Catholic Employers Be Exempted From Paying For Health Insurance Covering Contraception?"

February 5, 2012 By 48 Comments

If you were reading Camels With Hammers regularly before we made the move to Freethought Blogs, you would have frequently been treated to the long, insightful, and vigorously argued comments of my friend Mary. Mary is a Roman Catholic and is politically liberal in many (but not all) respects. We met when I was a [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Feminism, Feminism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , 48 Comments

How Scalia Judges Based On Faith-Based, Religious Metaphysics

November 6, 2011 By 13 Comments

The blog Doggy Style quotes Justice Antonin Scalia making a disturbing analysis in 2002: “So it is no accident, I think, that the modern view that the death penalty is immoral has centered in the West. That has little to do with the fact that the West has a Christian tradition and everything to do with the [...]

Filed Under: Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Christianity, Christianity, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 13 Comments