Please stop watching it; stop filling your head with filth. Please. People say it’s just entertainment. … Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, and especially with what you watch.Actor Angus T. Jones • Telling people to stop watching his show, “Two and a Half Men,” in a video he filmed with the Forerunner Christian Church. Jones, who has been on the show for more than half of his 19 years, has become increasingly religious in recent years, and now identifies as a Seventh-Day Adventist.
A preview of the week’s big controversy: Dan Savage, editor of recent Pulitzer winner The Stranger and creator of the “It Gets Better” project, spoke some trash on the Bible and what it says about homosexuality at a recent high school journalism conference. People started walking out. Savage didn’t stop. In fact, he made a point of keeping witty and joked when he was done that the people walking out could come back inside. Problem is, folks don’t have a sense of humor and are calling on Savage to apologize — Savage did, but only for people who were offended, not for the comments themselves. Our take: Have they read this man’s advice column? This is tame.
greenstate asks: why is it impossible for news stories in america to leave god out?
» SFB says: To be fair, if you lost both your legs and nearly died twice on the battlefield, you might also have certain feelings on God, too. He brought religion up in his interview, not the other way around. I don’t doubt him for that. Whatever your own feelings on religion or faith (I have mine, too — I personally lean towards secular humanism), it’s not the place of the news organization to whitewash them, but to present them. Just my thoughts. — Ernie @ SFB
People are afraid to be seen as with us. It’s like they went after them, how do we know they aren’t going to come after us next? Everyone is afraid and looking over their shoulder.UC-Irvine Muslim Student Union leader Hamza Siddiqui • Discussing the charges against him and ten other members of his group. See, the Muslim Student Union (which had been criticized by Jewish and Israeli groups in the past for its overly-in-your-face approach to the issues) repeatedly disrupted a speech by Michael B. Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, last year. After the speech, the group was suspended for a quarter. It seemed like the scandal died, until the students involved in said protests (three of which went to UC-Riverside) were charged with disturbing a public meeting and conspiring to do so. While the Muslim Student Union perhaps overplayed its hand by trying to drown Oren out for the entire speech in an organized manner, charging them with a misdemeanor seems perhaps a tad anti-free-speech. source (via • follow)
As an atheist, I see nothing ‘wrong’ in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me.Ricky Gervais • In a lengthy essay he wrote for the Wall Street Journal titled “A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist.” He points out that he wasn’t always this way: “I loved Jesus. He was my hero. More than pop stars. More than footballers. More than God. God was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to work at it.” But one day, his older brother questioned him about his religion, and then he started thinking about it, and that was that. Gervais ends the essay with a pretty simple but smart point about the whole matter: “You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.” Good to know. source (via • follow)
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