Category Archives: Church & State

Pope Francis: Probably Not The Best Man To Be Attacking ‘Fake News’

Pope Francis  has  been attacking ‘fake news’ again, not for the first time (my emphasis added): The term “fake news” has been the object of great discussion and debate. In general, it refers to the spreading of disinformation on line or … Continue reading

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“The worst method of dying, except for all the others”

An extract (published in the latest New Yorker) from Dying: A Memoir, a book written by the late Cory Taylor, written as she contemplated her approaching death from cancer: Yes, I have considered suicide, and it remains a constant temptation. If … Continue reading

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Enlightenment Fail : A Dane is Charged with Blasphemy

Cross-posted on the Corner. The New York Times (my emphasis added): A 42-year-old man who burned a Quran and posted a video of it on Facebook has been charged with blasphemy in Denmark, a striking decision by prosecutors in a … Continue reading

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The Left Thinks Muslims in the U.S. Have it Bad. Really, Really Bad.

  A new Rasmussen poll highlights the divergence between left and right on perceptions of who’s persecuted. And just, wow. From the data, one gets the impression that it’s the allegedly cold-hearted right more alarmed about the plight of religious … Continue reading

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Church and State, God and God Gene

Whether or not God exists there cannot be much doubt about the existence of (to use a crude shorthand) a ‘God gene’, the innate propensity of  most people to believe in gods and/or the supernatural and, at least to a … Continue reading

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Even Muslims Think British Police Might be Overcompensating

Just as the level of trust in the West’s governing institutions is at or near all-time lows, the Daily Telegraph reports that British officials in the vicinity of Birmingham are considering allowing female officers of the Islamic persuasion to don…burkas: A police … Continue reading

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A Raid in Argentina

We’ll have to see what emerges from the eventual prosecution, but this story (reported in the Daily Telegraph, with my emphasis added) from Argentina may be interesting for the light it casts on the Christian fascination with suffering (discussed here the other … Continue reading

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Thomas Becket, Defender of Religious Privilege

Accompanied by somewhat morbid spectacle, a fragment of the elbow (!)  of Thomas Becket  (1118-70), an Archbishop of Canterbury who came to a rather sticky end, has been briefly returned to England. The BBC reports: A bone believed to be … Continue reading

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Rome, Brussels and Ventotene

Cross-posted on the Corner: Writing in Britain’s Catholic Herald, Ed West reports on the attitude taken by the Vatican to Brexit. I touched on this last week in a discussion on the award to the Pope of the Charlemagne prize, … Continue reading

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The Pope, the EU and the Charlemagne Prize

Cross-posted on the Corner One thing about this pope: When it comes to political matters, he has an unerring ability to be on the wrong side of the issue. Vatican Radio: Pope Francis on Friday received the International Charlemagne Prize of … Continue reading

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