The new issue of Vanity Fair features a story called "The Secret Gay Life of the Vatican: Inside a Hidden Netherworld of the Catholic Church." While the full piece is not online, there's an excerpt on the VF website with two really great quotes.
Just as cool merchandise is to blame for the crime of shoplifting, so too are children to blame for the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy for decades. At least, if you ask one influential Catholic archbishop.
In addition to promoting team building, life skill acquiring, and adorable little girls in adorable matching uniforms photo ops, the Girl Scouts of America have long had a much more insidious agenda: promoting lesbianism. At least, if you ask a right-wing pastor who went on an epic, hilariously whackadoodle rant…
School vouchers, in theory, give low-income students the opportunity to attend the same parochial and private schools their wealthier counterparts can afford. In practice, they siphon money away from already-struggling public schools and into organizations that routinely expel kids for being gay. And no one is doing…
Minnesota Congresswoman and firebrand head of the Congressional Whackadoodle Caucus went on the radio this weekend to talk about, I don't know, what she normally talks about I guess? Word barf that reads like Tea Party Magnetic poetry in a blender? But what she ended up talking about — in an excited, unsettlingly…
We already know that ric-rac n' hot glue purveyor Hobby Lobby is totally not down with its female employees using birth control because Jesus Is Watching You Fuck. But here's another reason to not buy your crafting supplies there: they're also not wild about Jews. Hobby Lobby: basically, your anti-Semitic,…
Pope Francis, the hippest, most bro'd down Pope since Pope Brad the Chill (not a real pope), just did a long interview with an Italian newspaper — and it was the stuff of right wing nightmares. During the interview, the head of the Church stopped just short of chiding modern church leaders who are "obsessed" with…
Now that the phrase "It Gets Better" is more culturally pervasive than Pepsi's slogan (is it still "You Got The Right One Baby, Uh-Huh!"?), Dan Savage has launched a new project with marginalized gay kids in mind. This time around, instead of adults reassuring The Youths that bullying will subside, gay-embracing…
A dating site promises to match Christian couples who want to get freaky outside of the loving embrace of God's blessing with other... Christians. I don't understand why this website exists.
In yet another case of religion meets stupidity meets power, Tennessee Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew changed a 7-month-old boy's name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and "that one person is Jesus Christ."
There sure have been a lot of newly minted Islam experts popping up in the past week — and in the places you'd least expect them. Fox News, the woman at the New York Times whose classical Greek references have devolved from incisive to dodderingly inscrutable, and several typically myopic conservative news outlets…
I'm an atheist and I'm embarrassed. Not because I'm self-conscious about my convictions (lol, no), but because so many people insist on being such condescending dicks in the name of atheism. I didn't settle on my belief system because it's a great opportunity for me to dunk on church ladies—it's my belief system …
In a move that should surprise only those being cryogenically unfrozen after decades in suspended animation, the Catholic Church is officially okay with gay dudes marrying women and leading frustrating, unfulfilling lives of unpleasant sex. Their reasoning? When a penis and vagina — sorry, man and woman — get…
Christian Domestic Discipline, or CDD as its adherents call it, is a movement that seeks to carry out God's will. Which specific plan of God's? Oh, you know, just that all women obey their husbands fastidiously — a dynamic that CDD thinks is best maintained through doling out out corporal punishments. Its few…
If you don't know anything about American state politics, a good rule of thumb that governors with "Rick," "Scott," or "Jan Brewer" in their names tend to be real pieces of work* (*jerks). So it should come as no surprise that Rick Perry of Texas, one of the Rickiest Ricks who ever did Rick, used the signing of a…
Thank the Lawd! Cheerleaders of a Texan High School just won a hard-fought battle against sinners: a judge has ruled that the cheerleaders can temporarily continue their official game ritual and hold their Bible banners up. Yay, it's religious freedom.
The Catholic Diocese of Columbus fired Bishop Watterson High School's much-beloved physical education teacher and coach after learning she was gay and living in sin. Is that even legal? It's unclear, but at least those poor children are safe from the clutches of a devil woman who was plotting to turn them all into…
Meet Pam Stenzel. Pam Stenzel is a highly-paid* lecturer who speaks about the virtues of abstinence. Stenzel spoke on Monday at George Washington High School in Charleston, WV and created quite a stir when she allegedly made comments like, "If you take birth control, your mother probably hates you," and "I could look…
Pope Francis called women "fundamental" to the Catholic Church today, angering Catholics who believe women should stay away from holy matters because Jesus preferred bros to hos. Is the pope a feminist?!? Let's break it down.
The Vatican collapsed in a puff of smoke and funny hats this morning following Pope Francis's sacrilegious decision to wash and kiss the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention center in Rome on Holy Thursday. Well, not yet, but the gesture angered conservatives and liturgical purists who believe Francis set a…
