For over twenty years, a group called the Women of the Wall (some of the group's members are pictured above) has challenged the rules restricting women's access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Hewing to Orthodox rules and an Israeli high court ruling that upheld them, women are separated from men and are forbidden to wear tallit, traditionally reserved for men.

Yesterday, Nofrat Frenkel and other women from Women of the Wall went into the main area to pray, and after protests from the Orthodox men regularly installed there, she was detained for two hours and ordered to stay away from the wall for 15 days.

As much as Israel is riven by its disputes with Palestinians, long-simmering tensions between the ultra-Orthodox in Israel and more liberal elements have been exploding in recent months, including riots this summer and bitter, at times violent, protests over issues like keeping a parking garage open on the Sabbath.

Over the years, the Women of the Wall have had chairs and feces thrown at them while praying. Ultra-Orthodox anger at Women of the Wall flared up afresh earlier this month when Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, lashed out at them during his weekly sermon.

"There are stupid women who come to the Western Wall, put on a tallit (prayer shawl), and pray...These are deviants who serve equality, not Heaven. They must be condemned and warned of."

The response of Women of the Wall's Anat Hoffman:

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef established negative motives for the group of women praying at the Western Wall without knowing even one of the women. Because the motive of the group is awe of God, I invite him in the name of Women of the Wall to meet us and get to know us."

An Orthodox man tells Israeli filmmaker Yael Katzir in her recent documentary on the Women of the Wall, Praying In Her Own Voice, "Women have their job to do and men have theirs. Women must teach the children, take care of the house, raise the children to observe the Torah and its commandments, and the man must go learn Torah."

The role of women is a major front in the struggle over who gets to define Judaism and the use of space in the Jewish state. As Hoffman puts it in the clip seen here, "Israel markets the wall as a place of national unity. How can there be unity when half the population is silenced?"

Police Arrest Female Activist After Donning Prayer Shawl at Western Wall [Haaretz]
Praying In Her Own Voice [New Love Films]

Prejean's interview is filled with the type of rage-inducing quotes we've come to expect from the fallen beauty queen ("I've never said that I hated gays. I have friends who are gay. I have hairdressers who are gay"), but perhaps the most interesting aspect of the article is how Prejean's notion of Christianity matches up with the comments left by readers who feel she isn't properly representing the religion. "We're all in process," Prejean says about her Christianity, "No one's perfect; Christians are especially not perfect. It's funny-there are people who think Christians are perfect or are holy people who go around judging everybody, but [it's] actually the complete opposite. We love one another, we don't always love the sin but we love the sinner."

The comments that follow the piece, however, show a markedly split opinion of Ms. Prejean, with many commenters attacking her for not being a "real" Christian while others claim she deserves the forgiveness and guidance. In a way, it's a pretty fascinating look at the struggle for identity in the Evangelical Christian community, as the notion of what a "real Christian" is seems to be debatable.

Some commenters are quick to dismiss Prejean, stating that she's not a true representative of the religion:

Becky Posted: November 13, 2009 4:34 PM
PLEASE do not give this "Christian" anymore air time or face time. Radar online today has unearthed eight more sex tapes and 30 nude pictures of miss Prejean. THIS WOMAN DOES NOT REPRESENT CHRISTIANITY IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM PERIOD.

Jonathan Posted: November 13, 2009 9:27 AM
I do not see any way in which the name of Christ has been glorified by Ms. Prejean's actions. Because of her and those who take advantage of her, people that vanity, self-centeredness, immaturity, sexual hypocrisy, a judgmental attitude and ignorance are marks of a Christian. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that it appears she may be lying about many aspects of the things that have happened behind closed doors. Perez Hilton looked like a food through all of this, but at least people don't think he is representing Christ. Ms. Prejean does far more damage.

Others defend her, noting that attacking Prejean isn't exactly an example of true Christian values, either:

Christian Student Posted: November 13, 2009 8:57 AM
The Evil One is really having his way with us. I read this article a few days ago, come back today, and what do I read? More hateful, judgemental, and, honestly, un-Christian posts. I see people calling Prejean hateful names, each other hateful names, throwing Bible passages at each other, not in order to spread the Truth of the Word, but to justify more hateful thoughts and comments towards Prejean and towards each other. Yes, Prejean has and continues to make many mistakes, like all of us have and still do, but instead of calling her names, pointing out her flaws, criticizing the magazine for interviewing her, etc., we could be offering up our prayers and concerns for her, as she's clearly going through a tough time in her life. Whether or not she's lying or creating a bad example is irrelevant. She's still in need of our love, kindness, and prayers, just like any other human being on this planet. Let's watch our comments; they clearly aren't creating a good Christian example either.

This comment brings up a pretty great question: are Christians going to step back from instantly standing behind the Carrie Prejeans of the world based only on one social issue?

Kurt Posted: November 12, 2009 4:55 PM
Really? As a Christian, I am embarrassed that we made this person a "poster child" for Christianity and conservatism. And why did we do that? Simply because we perceived her as speaking out against gay people. Is that all it takes? Hey, you're part of a system that objectifies women. Your weren't happy with the body God gave you so you had your breasts made bigger JUST to improve your sex appeal and win a beauty pageant. You posed topless in sexually provocative photos. And now you have a solo sex tape of you masturbating. But your'e opposed to gay marriage!! Yay! You qualify to be our spokesperson. the issue is not whether God can forgive her for past mistakes. He can and does. The issue is if we, as Christians, really should be holding her up as a model of what it means to be a conservative and Christian. She certainly does not have the moral character of those I would want representing my point of view. But she doesn't like gay people, so I guess that makes it okay.

"It is no wonder the World calls Christians hypocrites," this commenter writes, seemingly unaware that her comment is actually a pretty good example of why the world calls Christians hypocrites.

Adrienne Posted: November 12, 2009 4:15 PM
I cannot believe that this was posted at a Christian web site. MY Bible tells me that women are to be modest at all times. MY Bible tells me that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. I am proud to say that I don't have any gay friends and if one of my friends 'came out' as gay, they would stop being my friend (Unless they were repentant and did not want to be gay). I believe in the Lord and I put my faith in Him and in no other. It's true, no one is perfect except for Him but if you sin you should fall on your knees in forgiveness. You should not go parading around trying to make yourself out to be a faithful woman when you cannot even see your own sin! It is no wonder that the World calls Christians hypocrites when we are getting boob jobs, making sex tapes, posing nude and hanging around with homosexuals!

Whether or not the Christian community will ultimately reject Prejean as a spokesperson is yet to be seen, though it is hard not to wonder what it feels like for someone who claims to take such pride in one's faith to be called a hypocrite not only by those who don't share her belief system, but by those she counts as spiritual allies. She may eventually be able to obtain the forgiveness and understanding she seeks, on a personal level, but it will be interesting to see if the leaders in the Christian community move a bit slower in the future before creating a poster child for Christian values, only to tear her down months later.

Q+A: Carrie Prejean [Christianity Today]

While Scientology has been going through tough times lately — a French court convicted the church of fraud and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis resigned publicly — spokesperson Tommy Davis says the church is flourishing: assets and property holdings have doubled over the past five years. Is some of that cash from the catalog sales? Maybe!

Before you open the catalog, there's the cover picture — a snowy scene captured by world-renowned photographer L. Ron Hubbard. Or, as he was called by a former coworker, Enron Hubbard.

Inside, there's a picture of — and a letter from — Mr. Hubbard. The message reads: "Mankind's salvation lies within our hands. A very Merry Christmas to you all and a bright friendly new year." Has Hubbard been dead since 1986? Yes. But his message, about being a "help" to others, lives on!

Hubbard's hideous curtains also live on. Related: It's so disappointing that L. Ron didn't have the alien ornament from Bronner's. We don't know what Xenu actually looks like, but we doubt he has a goatee, like the BBC depicted him.

What do you give the man who has everything? The leatherbound edition of the 18 "Basics Books." According to the copy, "Each volume is bound in Nigerian goatskin" and "printed on 100% cotton paper." Oh, and: "The Basics was created to fuel the next phase of our planetary crusade." In case you weren't aware.

UPDATE: Curiosity got the best of me and I just called to ask how much the set of 18 leatherbound books costs. The answer?? $2,000.

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If leatherbound is too fancy for you, just go for a $25 hardback. Or get four lectures, on CD. The description reads: "Containing discoveries heralded as greater than the wheel or fire, Dianetics has remained a bestseller for more than 50 years." Greater than the wheel! Greater than fire! And easily gift-wrapped.

For $85, you can get the book and lectures for Science Of Survival. The copy reads: "Dianetics revealed the previously unknown reactive mind that enslaves Man and the auditing procedures to get rid of it. But that was only Plan A. As Ron deliniated in the closing chapter, Plan B was to embrace further research into life force. And here it is, Science Of Survival, with the discovery of Theta and how it interacts with the physical universe of matter, energy, space and time, MEST." MEST is not to be confused with EST or The Forum, which, like Scientology, was called a cult.

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"76 million years of glare fights, implants, between lives, exploding facsimiles, entities, blanketings, volcanoes and theta traps… revealed." Can someone translate? Oh wait — it says "not for the fainthearted." And: "Here is the unvarnished truth of the past and how beings came to be 'human.'" That cro mag in the illustration is munching on the thigh of an infidel!

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Everything you need to know about theta! For the low, low price of $150. Learn about the technology that bridges 8-80 to 8-8008. And discover the "shift in orientation in life from MEST to Theta." Tom Cruise knows this stuff backwards and forwards.

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Raise your hand if you think the Handbook For Preclears artwork is creepy!

Actually, maybe some people you know posed for this cover: John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, Nancy Cartwright, Jason Lee, Danny Masterson? Juliette Lewis is already clear.

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Are you taking notes? "Chaos=MEST. Order= Life." And what do eighteen-foot tomato plants and cucumbers the size of watermelons have to do with anything? For $110 you can find out! Hint: "It's also the answer to broad scale clearing… of entire nations."

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What makes the Clearsound™ "listening system" so special? As in: Why does it cost $400? It appears to be a Sony portable CD player, headphones and a mini-amp. The player pictured is about $55. That must be one fancy carrying case.

Don't you enjoy how the "Ultimate Collection" sits nestled in the snowy, rocky mountains? Either Legolas is going to come scampering by, or someone is going to start singing "Edelweiss."

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Ron's book about marriage sounds super romantic.

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Did you know Hubbard was so prolific? There are 49 "classic" lectures listed, all with ideas about "solutions to the dangerous environment"; "datum that can transform apathy to enthusiasm" and the mystery of the human soul.

You are not serious about Scientology unless you have your own E-Meter. Not just any E-Meter, but the "Hubbard Mark Super VII Quantum E-Meter." A bargain at $4,650 — or $5,500 for the Planetary Dissemination Edition.

See, the meters come in colors: FSO red; teal; black; midnight blue; white… and Planetary Dissemination Blue.

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Last, but not least: Jewelry! You know you want a large gold Clear Bracelet with diamonds ($3,200), or a gold OT (operating Thetan) ring ($350). Oh — don't get your hopes up:

The Clear Bracelet is only for Clears.

Defections, Court Fights Test Scientology [AP]

Earlier:
The French Are Not Buying This Scientology Thing
11 New Weird Christmas Ornaments From Bronner's
Related: All previous catalog posts

Today's New York Times examines the situation, starting off with a grim portrait of the lengths women will go through to abort:

Gina Judilla already had three children the first time she tried to terminate a pregnancy. "I jumped down the stairs, hoping that would cause a miscarriage," she said. The fetus survived and is now an 8-year-old boy.

Three years later, pregnant again, she drank an herbal concoction that was supposed to induce abortion. That, too, failed.

Three years ago, in another unsuccessful attempt to end a pregnancy, she took Cytotec, a drug to treat gastric ulcers that is widely known in the Philippines as an "abortion pill."

The article reveals that abortion in the Philippines is illegal, and, though reproductive health services are available through a private medical system, as much as 70% of the population is too poor to access birth control methods and information. While the state-run health care system does provide for some of these services, it is implemented by local authorities, many of whom promptly banned birth control citing religious reasons.

More recently, however, family planning advocates have been making headway in their campaign to change that. Legislation before the Philippine Congress, called the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act, would require governments down to the local level to provide free or low-cost reproductive health services, including condoms, birth control pills, tubal ligations and vasectomies. It would also mandate sex education in all schools, public and private, from fifth grade through high school.

Supporters of the bill cite urgent public health needs. A 2006 government survey, which interviewed 46,000 women, found that between 2000 and 2006, only half of Filipino women of reproductive age used birth control of any kind. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization based in the United States that researches reproductive health policy, 54 percent of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines in 2008 were unintended.

Most of those unintended pregnancies - 92 percent - resulted from not using birth control, the institute said, and the rest from birth control that failed. Those unintended pregnancies, the institute says, contributed to an estimated half-million abortions that year, despite a ban on the procedure. Most of the abortions are done clandestinely and in unsanitary conditions. Many women resort to crude methods like those Ms. Judilla tried.

Opponents of the bill are finding their support in churches, saying:

The Rev. Melvin Castro of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, an arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the Catholic Church and the laity would fight the bill, if passed into law, up to the Supreme Court.

"The Constitution is very clear that the state should protect life from conception up to its natural end," Father Castro said."Regardless of their religion, Filipinos are God-fearing and family-loving. This bill will change that culture."

Interestingly, both sides are arguing that they are working in the best interests of women. The opposition explains they want to "to protect [women's] wombs from those who want to take away life." They do not provide a reason why women like Judilla have to suffer to protect their ideology.

(Image Credit: Luis Liwanag for The New York Times)

Bill to Increase Access To Contraception Is Dividing Filipinos [NY Times]

There is, apparently, an epidemic of possible miscegenation at work: Jewish girls are dating Arab boys, and someone has to stop it. So, since there's apparently no shortage of available zealous busybodies who have nothing better to do after-hours, several troupes of vigilantes have formed amongst Jewish men who hope to "save" the young girls for themselves. With names like "Love of Youth" and "Fire for Judaism," they prowl those areas where teen couples are known to congregate and perform interventions with tactics not unlike those of abortion protesters, trying to save "problem cases" by administering lectures and disseminating CDs and literature on the dangers, presumably, of miscegenation.

The motivation seems to be both political and religious in nature, fueled as much by regional tensions as the traditional fear of losing Jews to intermarriage. "Their place is with the Jewish nation, not our enemies," says one of the organizers, who's obviously far more religious than any of the girls he's harassing.

Shockingly, turning this into an exciting forbidden Romeo and Juliet situation and casting Arab men as dangerous bad boys has not stopped the teens! For those of us who see this natural interaction as a healthy way of forging new understanding and connection, that's a good thing. For those whose intransigence has nothing to do with logic or apparently respect for personal decisions, boundaries and the law, well, probably not so much. When the short "West Bank Story" won an Oscar, it seemed light-hearted. The reality? Not so much.

Vigilantes Patrol For Jewish Women Dating Arab Men [NPR]

The Paiwan, an aboriginal Taiwanese tribe, has a storied tradition of witchcraft dating back thousands of years - but one that has been almost entirely eradicated due to, first, the increasing spread of other religions, and later by the inevitable toll of modernization. The fact that the tradition is oral - the Paiwan did not record the numerous chants, as they had no written language - means that, as the number of witches, or mediums, dies off, the ancient practices may well too.

To fight its obsolescence, a group of women have received funding from Taiwan's Council of Indigenous Peoples to start a "witchcraft class" in which students - all of whom must, according to custom, be descendants of mediums themselves to have any chance of possessing the gift - learn the ancient chants that are an integral part of the polytheistic religion. Says Weng Yu-hua, "In the past, mediums had a high status in the tribe...They played an important role, especially during major occasions such as before a hunting excursion, before the year's crops were planted, or when the tribe mourned the death of one of its members."

Despite these seemingly stringent requirements, the class numbers 10 students, described as "housewives in their 30s to 50s." And there's demand for more classes. While the description of the women provides a telling contrast between a time when they would have been "high-status" tribe members - a time they're obviously interested in preserving - and the modern realities, it also triggered in my mind a wholly inappropriate scenario of a latest Bravo incarnation - which, come to think of it, would actually be fascinating, educational and, at the risk of trivializing an important and fascinating oral tradition, provide an important lesson on the preservation of heritage.

Taiwan Aborigines Pass On Witchcraft Tradition [BBC]
School Of Witchcraft Opens In Taiwan [Telegraph]

The agency claims that it "aims to raise the standard of models to a new height: beauty achieved from the perfect balance and unity of spirit, mind, and physical body," and that promoting Christian values through the models on its roster is a way to promote a spiritual beauty of sorts, as well as a way to help models find their own inner beauty in an industry that is notoriously ugly to women. I suppose it's not entirely strange to consider that some models would be more comfortable working for an agency that fell in with their religious views, but I'm not quite sure how any agency is going to promote a religious viewpoint when their models are actually working, as the only statements models are typically allowed to make on the runway are those presented by the clothes they're given to wear.

Christian-based talent agencies, film distributors, and record labels are nothing new, but most people involved in such endeavors are putting out Christian material that is clearly aimed at a specific audience. Christian rock bands carry religious themes in their songs and often play to largely Christian crowds, and the same can be said of Christian films and Christian novels. Surely there are already many Christian models (and models of all religions) working today, but how the Christian model will promote religion while doing her job is yet to be seen, and it will be interesting to see how the agency secures high profile jobs and campaigns for their clients without compromising the values they seek to endorse.

Christian Modelling Agency Preaches Spiritual Fulfillment To The Fashion World [Guardian]

After a gruesome lead that covers the story of Hisham, an Iraqi refugee now living in Beirut, the article goes on to explain:

In Baghdad a new series of murders began early this year, perpetrated against men suspected of being gay. Often they are raped, their genitals cut off, and their anuses sealed with glue. Their bodies are left at landfills or dumped in the streets. The nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch, which has documented many of these crimes, has spoken of a systematic campaign of violence involving hundreds of murders.

Weaving the key aspects of the persecution with humanizing narratives, writers Juliane von Mittelstaedt and Daniel Steinvorth (originally writing for Der Speigel) produce a rich discussion of the current climate for homosexuals in increasingly theocratic areas. While their analysis revolves around same gender loving men, they do paint a detailed picture of the issues at play.

• There's something a wee bit familiar about these justifications for homophobia:

  Islamists are now a dominant cultural force in many of these countries. They include figures such as popular Egyptian television preacher Yussuf al-Qaradawi, who demonizes gays as perverse. Four years ago the Shiite grand ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa saying that gays are to be murdered in the most brutal way possible. These religious opinion leaders base their hatred for gays on the story of Lot in the Koran: "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation [ever] committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." Lot's people suffered the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. The prophet Mohammed has a number of dicta in which he condemns these acts by Lot's people, and in one of them he even goes as far as to call for punishment by death.

• As is the case in many cultures, homosexuality was not always universally condemned:
  

  It looks as if a wave of homophobia has swept over the Islamic world, a place that was once widely known for its open-mindedness, where homoerotic literature was written and widely read, where gender roles were not so narrowly defined, and, as in the days of ancient Greece, where men often sought the companionship of youths[...]

  The story of Lot and related verses in the Koran were not interpreted as unambiguous references to homosexual sex until the 20th century, says Everett Rowson, professor of Islamic studies at New York University. This reinterpretation was the result of Western influences — its source was the prudery of European colonialists who introduced their conception of sexual morality to the newly conquered countries.

  The fact of the matter is that half of the laws across the world that prohibit homosexuality today are derived from a single law that the British enacted in India in 1860. "Many attitudes with regard to sexual morality that are thought to be identical to Islam owe a lot more to Queen Victoria than to the Koran," Rowson says.

• Often, intrusions of the state into the realm of the personal aren't as founded in religion as they appear:
  

  "The most repressive are secular regimes such as those in Egypt or Morocco, which are under pressure from Islamists and so try to outdo them with regard to morals," says Scott Long of Human Rights Watch. "In addition, the persecution of homosexuals shows that a regime has control over the private lives of its citizens — a sign of power and authority." For several years now, a sense of "moral panic" has been systematically fomented in many Muslim countries.

• What is moral and what is immoral? The lines, when examined, begin to blur:
  

  The persecution of gays has led to a boom in the demand for sex-change operations in Iran. More operations of this kind are carried out in the Islamic Republic than anywhere else in the world apart from Thailand. These procedures were approved by Ayatollah Khomeini himself in 1983. Khomeini defined transsexuality as a disease that can be healed by means of an operation. Since then thousands of people have requested this kind of treatment, and the Iranian government even covers part of the costs.

  "Family members and physicians urge homosexuals to have operations to normalize their sexual orientation," Parsi says. This way it was possible for a high-ranking Shiite religious scholar to finance his secretary's physical transformation into a woman and then to marry him.

• The reality on paper isn't always the reality on the ground:
  

  The archconservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country where sharia law is the sole legal code, under which homosexuals are flogged and executed. "Homosexuals are freer here than they are in Iran," says Afdhere Jama, who traveled through the Islamic world for seven years doing research for his book "Illegal Citizens."

  Gay men and women have a surprising amount of space in Saudi society. Newspapers print stories about lesbian sex in school lavatories, while it is an open secret that certain shopping centers, restaurants and bars in Jeddah and Riyadh are gay meeting points.

• And, as always, bigotry wilts in the face of common sense:
  

  [Openly gay imam Daayiee Abdullah] regularly receives death threats but now laughs them off, saying: "How can two loving men pose a threat to the foundations God has laid?

  "

  Homophobia on the rise in the Muslim world [Salon]

When 17-yera-old Rifqa Bary ran away from her parents' house, it was to the Florida home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz, a pastor of the evangelical Global Revolution Church, which Bary had found through a Facebook group. The police tracked her down two weeks later, but she doesn't want to return to Columbus, claiming her conversion has endangered her life. As she said on YouTube, "If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn't be alive...In 150 generations in family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first - imagine the honor in killing me. There is great honor in that, because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It's in the Koran."

Says CNN,

The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, Mohamed Bary, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to "deal with the situation." In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!" The teenager claims her father added, "I will kill you!"

Her lawyer, John Stemberger, is also president of the Christian advocacy organization Florida Family Policy Council. He says that his client has been abused by her father in the past, punched in the face for not wanting to wear a hijab, and "is ripe for apostate killing or mercy killing." He also accused the parents' mosque of having ties to terrorism and radical Islam. The pastor and his wife have said they fear for their lives.

Her father, however, says that while he'd have preferred she not convert, "I have no problem with her practicing any faith," "we wouldn't do her harm" and that "We are not bad people...We are not like that, we are normal."

The whole case is setting off alarm bells for me. Now, on the one hand, it's very good that authorities are taking possible violence against women seriously, as so-called "honor killings" do happen and it's crucial to cut down on systemic abuse that can foster such a culture, and take such claims very seriously. However, the crusade-like nature of the rhetoric, the vague charges of "radical Islam" and the enthusiasm with which the story's being taken up as a cudgel against the religion generally is very worrisome. When we were first tipped off about the story, it was in an inflammatory email that referenced "radical Islam" and ended, "Because of these mainstream and authoritative Islamic teachings, a girl's life is in danger today. And as long as American authorities continue to pretend that the great mass of Muslims in the United States ignore or reject these traditional teachings of Islam, there will be many more young girls who will share Rifqa Bary's plight."

Whatever the father's threats - and I certainly think her claims should be treated with all due seriousness; she is clearly not manufacturing her emotion on the widely-circulated video, and her friends have backed up her stories - it's really hard to imagine any non-Christian using language like "Jesus in your heart." That's Christian rhetoric. And in her case, it sounds like the language of Christian martyrdom. A missing-persons cop who worked on the case is skeptical, saying that her father "appears to be a loving parent who knew about her conversion to Christianity months ago." Her parents argue that she's been "brainwashed" by the pastor, who's seen holding her protectively in the video. And her brother adds,
"we don't think the safest person is the pastor she met two weeks ago on Facebook." But her lawyer has asked that she be placed in protective custody until she turns 18. For the moment, an Orlando judge has placed Bary into the custody of Florida's Department of Children and Families until another hearing next week.

It's reassuring to see that the police and the legal system are handling this case responsibly, because they may be the only ones. I'll admit, my initial reaction, on hearing about the case, was something akin to, "how horrible! Protect her from zealots!" Then I read more, saw that groups like "Faith Under Fire" and "Exposing Liberal Lies" were taking up her cause so eagerly, and thought, ""how horrible! Protect her from zealots!" And herein lies the problem. This girl's case - whatever the facts - is not an ideological cudgel - however tempting it might be to rally behind the cause of a beautiful young cheerleader-martyr. It's her life, and deserves the respect of objective analysis, and compassion untainted by our views or hers.

Muslim Teen Fears For Life After Changing Religion [CNN]
Rifqa Bary: "I Am Fighting For My Life"Parents Say Local Runaway Was Brainwashed [MSNBC]
Runaway Cites Fear Of Father Over Leaving Islam
<a href="http://rifqabary.com/Rifqa Bary: Couple That Took Rifqa Bary Says They Have No Regrets [Orlando Sentinel]
A Florida Culture-War Circus Over Rifqa Bary [Time]

Regnerus argues that the Church's stance on abstinence is "unreasonable" when faced with the statistics on American marriages—namely, that men and women are marrying in their late twenties. "When people wait until their mid-to-late 20s to marry," Regnerus argues, "it is unreasonable to expect them to refrain from sex. It's battling our Creator's reproductive designs." But instead of challenging the Church to reconsider their abstinence-only push, Regnerus says the answer is supporting early marriage, so that young Christians can remain faithful to their religion, even as hormones and the passage of time make it increasingly difficult for them to do so.

However, Regnerus tells the Associated Press that he's not trying to push young Christians to marry simply to avoid premarital sex: "I think marriage is just a fantastic institution for people who think rightly about it, have realistic ideas about it and put the requisite work into it," he says. Yet his piece seems to be fairly one sided when it comes to who, exactly, benefits the most from "young marriages."

Women, Regnerus argues, are outnumbered 3-1 in the Evangelical church, and their chances of finding a "chaste" man dwindle as they age. They're also faced with maturing faster than their male counterparts, which factors into this creepy argument: "It shouldn't surprise us when a young woman falls in love with someone three, five, even ten years her senior. Indeed, two of the finest marriages I've recently witnessed exhibit nearly a dozen years' difference between husband and wife. While there are unwise ages to marry, there is no right age for which we must make our children wait." One wonders how Regnerus would feel about a 20 year old Christian male falling in love with a 32 year old woman.

It's a fairly weak argument on his part, as he tries to brush aside the realities of young marriage (high divorce rates, money troubles, difficulties completing a college education, family disapproval) as thinks that are well-documented but easily avoided through—you guessed it—good Christian counseling. "Abstinence is not to blame for our marital crisis," he argues, "But promoting it has come at a cost in a permissive world in which we are increasingly postponing marriage." But is it really about "a permissive world?" Or is it about a world where young people are increasingly saddled with student loans, difficult job prospects, and social norms wherein their peers marry and have children later in life? Regnerus says it's not about the sex. But if that's the case, why the rush to marry? Why can't true love wait, like the church has been asking it to for years? For young Evangelicals, it seems, it's a matter of deciding what is, and isn't, worth the wait.

Wait For Sex And Marriage? Evangelicals Conflicted [AP]
The Case For Early Marriage [ChristianityToday]

According to an AP story, a six-member APA panel examined 83 studies on the issue, and found that not only is therapy to change sexual orientation (like that received by Ted Haggard, pictured) likely worthless, it can also cause patients to become depressed and consider suicide. Instead, the APA says therapists should recommend a range of solutions, from celibacy to changing church affiliation, to patients who have a conflict between their sexuality and their religion. Psychologist and panel leader Julia Glassgold told the AP,

Both sides have to educate themselves better. The religious psychotherapists have to open up their eyes to the potential positive aspects of being gay or lesbian. Secular therapists have to recognize that some people will choose their faith over their sexuality.

Alan Chambers, president of a group that purports to use religion to change sexual preference, and himself someone who says he "overcame unwanted same-sex attraction," says he is satisfied with the APA's report. Others are less happy. David Pruden, Executive Director of a nonprofit that claims to help gay Mormons become straight, plans to ignore the APA report. He tells Rosemary Winters of the Salt Lake City Tribune, "The doctrines and standards of the church don't change because of statements by quasi-political organizations."

In a way it's surprising that the APA is even still talking about this issue. Homosexuality was removed from the DSM (a comprehensive handbook of mental illnesses and problems) in 1973, and the APA already has a brochure on sexual orientation that reads, in part,

All major national mental health organizations have officially expressed concerns about therapies promoted to modify sexual orientation. To date, there has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation (sometimes called reparative or conversion therapy) is safe or effective. Furthermore, it seems likely that the promotion of change therapies reinforces stereotypes and contributes to a negative climate for lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons.

However, in April, Slate's William Saletan wrote that therapists could in good conscience help patients change their sexual orientation in cases of "borderline homosexuality." He said,

Would you tell [...] a patient that her understanding of God is wrong? Are you sure her attraction to women is more fundamental than her religious beliefs? Is peace with the lesbian part of her sexuality worth the destruction of her family or her faith? And most important: Do you think you can answer these questions without knowing more about her?

Michael King, the professor who led the British study, tries to do just that. When gay people seek therapeutic escape, he argues, "Mental health practitioners and society at large must help them to confront prejudice in themselves and in others."

Help them confront prejudice in themselves? Isn't that just the substitution of one inner war, one purification quest, for another?

Except the war to confront prejudice is one the patient might actually win. Saletan mentions friends of his who have dated both men and women as proof that sexuality can change "at the margins." And yes, sexual preferences are not necessarily static, especially over the course of a lifetime. But there's no evidence that these preferences can change as a result of therapy, and a therapist's attempt to force such change likely does more harm than good. More and more, it appears that attraction is something we can't control, is something perhaps mutable but not "reparable." Therapists shouldn't reinforce an untenable status quo that regards people's natural desires as sinful and in need of fixing. The fact that Saletan — conservative, yes, but writing in a publication as mainstream as Slate — thinks they should is evidence that the APA's statement is still necessary.

Psychologists Reject Gay ‘Therapy' [AP, via NYT]
Psychologists Repudiate Gay-To-Straight Therapy [AP, via Breitbart]
APA's Stance Another Positive Step For Gays, Utah Therapist Says [Salt Lake City Tribune]
Shades Of Gay [Slate]

In a terrific review on the Daily Beast, writer Megan Hustad draws a contrast between the recent rash of "bad-girl" tell-alls - stories of substance abuse and regrettable relationships and youthful misdemeanors - and Carlene Bauer's new Not That Kind of Girl, which upends the formula. Whereas most of these stories are tales of redemption, Bauer's is of someone who's found herself and needs to hang onto it. She's not a zealot or a prisoner of a narrow upbringing; she's an intellectual who happens to be a practicing Christian from a conservative home. As Hustad puts it,

She aspires not only to be truly hip, she also wants to be taken seriously in New York's snobbish literary scene. And she seeks to accomplish both of these goals while hanging on to her fervent faith in Jesus Christ. If life maneuvers received scores for technical difficulty, Bauer would be competing for gold.

While the romance of childhood repression - be it the mysteries of Catholicism, the strictures of evangelism or the tangles neuroses of the Jewish home - have always been literary gold, there's nothing quite so romantic about, well, a measure of contentment. Says Bauer, "Neither class anxiety nor Christianity were considered real, or fashionable, torments." And the memoir draws a sharp contrast between theoretically open-minded sophistication on the one hand, and the literary milieu's shock and disbelief when she admits to being a virgin.

Of course, this is nothing new. With the exceptions of those intellectual movements defined by their "moral seriousness" (think Transcendentalists, here) literary scenes from the Enlightenment through Bloomsbury have been characterized by a blithe scorn for the earnest - even as they dealt in the currency of emotion. While pre-Vatican II Catholicism actually became highly fashionable in British literary circles of the 20th Century, Americans - perhaps burdened by a need to throw off recent puritan antecedents? - tend to need a certain level of defiance to justify modern faith. Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor were conscious - not to say proud - Catholic writers, but in O'Connor's case this led to an uneasy relationship to much of the New York intelligentsia. (Paul Elie's The Life You Save May Be Your Own is great on this.)

This is not to say that, person by person, there aren't all kinds of "literary types." Any world is made up of a myriad of individuals, and doubtless the New York "scene" has always seemed more frustratingly hermetic than in fact it is. We've heard horror stories - and as this memoir shows, the milieu's as prey to provincialism as any other - but at the end of the day, Bauer concludes, people are kind. That Bauer's story has a happy ending - she is, by any standard, a gifted and accomplished writer - is a testament, ultimately, to the power of talent. Bauer evolves, of course, in the memoir - but it's not the reflexive abandonment of a narrow girlhood that we've become used to. And no one who reads Bauer's book can doubt that it's variety of experience and, yes, worldview that makes for true vibrancy in writing as in life.

Girl Gone Mild [Daily Beast]
* I drew on The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Megan Marshall's The Peabody Sisters in this post.

Carter feels so strongly about this that he called it quits with the Southern Baptists after sixty years.

So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when th e convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief - confirmed in the holy scriptures - that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

Carter believes — as many people do — that those who use the Bible to justify sexism, violence and oppression are cherry-picking quotes in order justify what they want to justify.

He doesn't believe that it's limited to Baptists, though, or even Christianity but he thinks that all the religious edicts justifying the oppression of women have one thing in common: they're a transparent effort by men to maintain their own power.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God.

But why is Carter speaking out right now? Because he's part of a group called The Elders, and women's rights are a new part of their campaign.


Here they are at a recent meeting, from left to right: former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Indian women's activist Ela Bhatt, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Anglican priest Desmond Tutu, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland. Algerian and international diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi and women's and children's rights advocate Graca Machel. The empty chair is for Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi; microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and honorary elder Nelson Mandela were, apparently, not in attendance. Their statement reads:

Religion and tradition are a great force for peace and progress around the world.

However, as Elders, we believe that the justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a higher authority, is unacceptable.

We believe that women and girls share equal rights with men and boys in all aspects of life.

We call upon all leaders to promote and protect equal rights for women and girls.

We especially call on religious and traditional leaders to set an example and change all discriminatory practices within their own religions and traditions.

The Elders are fully committed to the realisation of equality and empowerment of all women and girls.

Now if only the rest of the world were equally committed.

The Words Of God Do Not Justify Cruelty To Women [The Guardian]
Equality for Women & Girls [The Elders]

[Vatican City, July 1. Image via Getty]

Nuns wait for the weekly general audience of Pope Benedict XVI on July 1, 2009 at St Peter's square at The Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI will release a social encyclical on July 7, 'Caritas in Veritae' (Charity in thruth). AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOPHE SIMON (Photo credit should read CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images)

• New data shows that almost half of the whales harvested last summer in the Antarctic by Japan were pregnant, and several were lactating. The report also contained information on the whale fetuses, which were dismembered for "genetic studies." • In other whaling news, a report released at the International Whaling Commission reveals that countries could make more money if they switched from whale hunting to whale watching, but the delegate from Iceland says he would rather see the two industries grow together. • A new study from the Children's Hospital & Research Center in Oakland indicates that the placenta of healthy newborns may be a viable source for harvesting stem cells, which can be used to treat chronic blood-related disorders. • A religious nurse from the UK recently quit her job after hospital officials asked her to stop wearing her crucifix, which they said "could harbor infection." "I've always worn my cross and I've always been a Christian. It is important to me. I've worked here for 15 months and if it was an issue, why didn't they let me know in the interview?" she said. • Joseph Brooks, the Oscar-winning director and songwriter behind "You Light Up My Life," has been charged with rape and sexual assault. He has been accused of luring young actresses auditioning for roles back to his home where he proceeded to force himself on them. • A recent doctoral dissertation from Sweden has found that a good partner relationship can provide a buffer for work-related stress. • One of Banksy's famous murals was defaced by paintballers last night in an "attack" that left residents of Bristol "disappointed" and annoyed. • Presumably reacting to the advice of, like, everyone, the "Craigslist killer's" ex-fiancee is now "planning a life without him," and has said, "it would be quite a long period of time, if ever, before she saw him again." • The International Gymnastics Federation is now investigating whether it should cancel the results of women's gymnastics events in Sydney due to the possibility that two Chinese gymnasts were underage. • In Ontario, women, and especially poor women, are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions than men. A majority of Ontario residents have at least one chronic condition. • Researchers report that women with anorexia have lower levels of a brain protein called BDNF, which is associated with poor self-image, anxiety, and depression. • French winemakers attended a "speed-dating" event in which they try to impress US wine writers. Sample pickup line: "You can drink the sunshine." • Kimberley Vlaminck now admits that she asked for all 56 of the stars tattooed on her face, and initially said she had asked for only three because her dad was mad at her. • A group of Mormons called the Committee for Reconciliation is asking the Mormon Church to reconsider its ban on gay marriage. One member says, "I know that there are hundreds, thousands of families sitting in Mormon congregations that have a gay kid or brother or sister, and they are being torn apart inside." • Bear Grylls, the badass host of Man vs. Wild, served as inspiration for a nine-year-old boy who found himself stranded in the Utah forest. Grayson Wynne tore up his yellow raincoat and left pieces tied to trees as clues to his location, followed a creek to safety, and used the remains of his slicker to wave at a helicopter for help. •

Sociologist Amy Adamczyk finds, in fact, that being religious (or not) didn't make women any more or less likely to choose abortion — meaning that, overall, women were equally likely to have abortions if they were very religious as if they weren't. However, women that attended religious schools — particularly Protestant-denominated schools — were more likely to opt for abortion than even their Catholic school peers

.However, Adamczyk did find that women who attended school with conservative Protestants were more likely to decide to have an extramarital baby in their 20s than in their teenage years.

"The values of conservative Protestant classmates seem to have an abortion limiting effect on women in their 20s, but not in their teens, presumably because the educational and economic costs of motherhood are reduced as young women grow older," Adamczyk said.

In Glamour's recent article about women who chose abortions, counselors strongly recommended that women who felt abortion was murder choose other options.

"If a woman truly thinks having an abortion is the same as murdering a child you might see on the playground, she should strongly reconsider and seek counseling and other alternatives, such as adoption," Baker says.

The study indicates, however, that some women likely go straight from the protest lines to the clinics... and then back outside.

Religious Devotion Does Not Impact Abortion Decisions Of Young Unwed Women [EurekAlert]

Related: Abortion: The Serious Health Decision Women Aren't Talking About Until Now [Glamour]

Earlier: Speaking Out About An Abortion Can Be Harder Than Getting One