August 16, 2011 | 4:24 pm

BYU tops list of ‘most religious students’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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The Princeton Review has released another list of the most religious college campuses in the country. As before, BYU and Wheaton College made the top five and a bunch of small liberal arts schools rounded out the bottom five. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s two lists in less than a month for Brigham Young University, though I suspect the Cougars prefer this recognition to that of “douchiest colleges.”

Peggy Fletcher Stack pulls a few of the other lists that BYU has gotten on:

In related news, BYU also ranked third on the list for most “LGBT-Unfriendly,” ninth for “most conservative students,” and fourth for “Don’t Inhale” (the opposite of “Reefer Madness”).

BYU is also No. 1 for America’s “Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch,” schools and No. 1 for “Got Milk?” schools (the opposite of “Lots of Beer”). This is the 14th straight year BYU has earned the top spot in rankings of student sobriety.

Those are some, um, interesting lists. Just don’t call them nerds.

August 14, 2011 | 7:06 pm

Are religious people ‘nerds’?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This sketch from College Humor takes a parodist’s approach to the Bill Maher “Religulous” message about the religiously convicted. The scope, though, is a little broader: not just religious zealots but all those who take religion seriously. It’s a generally unfair characterization, but there are some funny, related remarks.

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August 14, 2011 | 3:10 pm

My name is Jonah; diver almost swallowed by whale shark

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I got pretty caught up in Shark Week earlier this month, and in the process I saw some pretty gruesome images. But I must have missed the segment about whale sharks.

These sharks grow to be more than 40 feet in length. But they don’t have the rows of spearhead teeth like the much smaller Great White shark. Far as I can tell, they just suck their food into their bellies.

Billionaire Richard Branson claims he recently swam into the mouth of one of these giant fishes. And this story has an incredible picture of a diver almost being swallowed up. (Check it.) All this got me wondering whether it was in fact the belly of a whale shark that Jonah spent three days inside.

The answer: Likely not.

As for the whale shark, Dr. E. W. Gudger, an Honorary Associate in Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, noted that “while the mouth is cavernous, the throat itself is only four inches wide and has a sharp elbow or bend behind the opening. This gullet would not permit the passage of a man’s arm”[citation needed]. In another publication he also noted that “the whale shark is not the fish that swallowed Jonah.”

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August 13, 2011 | 12:39 pm

Perry makes it officially official: He’s in 2012 presidential race

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

As everyone knew he would, Texas Gov. Rick Perry officially entered the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. But in an already crowded field of Romney and Bachmann and Pawlenty and others, does Perry have much of a chance?

He does if the evangelical vote still counts for much in the Republican Party. (Hint: It does, despite old frustrations.) As CNN’s Dan Gilgoff reports:

“There’s been a significant attempt by him and his staff to reach out to conservative Christian leaders and it’s now going to a new level,” says Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Council, a conservative Christian advocacy group, talking about Perry’s outreach.

“Perry is not making the same mistake that McCain made,” Staver said. “McCain wanted Christian conservative votes but didn’t want to get too close to Christian conservative leaders.”

Kelly Shackelford, a Texas-based evangelical activist who has been close to Perry for 20 years, says he has fielded roughly 100 phone calls in recent weeks from Christian activists across the country who are eager to learn more about Perry.

“People are calling and asking, ‘Is this guy really a social conservative and a fiscal conservative?’ and it’s easy to say yes because I’ve seen it,” said Shackelford, who runs a conservative legal advocacy group called the Liberty Institute. “As far as proving himself, he’s been the most solid conservative I’ve seen anywhere in the country.”

Must have been that prayer event last weekend.

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August 13, 2011 | 12:08 pm

Drug war meets holy war?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Santa Muerte, via Wikimedia Commons

Technically speaking, yes. But this is no new development.

Santa Muerte isn’t a real saint of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, the Cult of Santa Muerte—“Holy Death”—is condemned by the Church. But Mexican drug smugglers and murderers love her nonetheless.

Continuing that tradition, Mexican drug smugglers built an altar to Santa Muerte in a house that served as an opening to 328-yard tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the LA Times reports:

It didn’t work. Ten people were arrested by Mexican authorities.

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August 12, 2011 | 4:57 pm

Hybels shows Schultz a little grace after Starbucks CEO bows to boycott threats

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Howard Schultz, the founder and CEO of Starbucks was supposed to speak at The Global Leadership Summit at the Willow Creek megachurch. But that didn’t happen.

Schultz decided to back out of his talk after a small online petition called for a boycott of Starbucks if Schultz maybe the Willow Creek appearance. The official word from Starbucks was quite opaque. Via the Chicago Tribune:

Though Starbucks confirmed Schultz no longer planned to be there, the company would not attribute it to a campaign launched last week calling on Schultz to denounce the church’s stance before the event.

Earlier this summer, the coffee company announced an investigation of allegations that an openly gay New York barista was fired for discussing his personal life because Starbucks had “zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.”

With that in mind, activist Asher Huey, of Washington, criticized Schultz for agreeing to appear at a church with a long-standing membership in Exodus International, a ministry that believes homosexual behavior is destructive and Christians can “grow into heterosexuality.”

Huey didn’t mention that Willow Creek left Exodus two years ago.

Willow Creek is an evangelical church, and their beliefs on homosexuality are about what you would expect. They definitely don’t approve of homosexuality, but they’re not the rabid gay bashers that Huey suggests.

But, as The Atlantic noted, “Starbucks is still pretty touchy about that homophobia thing.”

Kind of crazy that Schultz and Starbucks could be that easily influenced, but their stranglehold on gourmet coffee has definitely slipped. Dare I say, I prefer the brewed coffee at McDonald’s some days.

How did Willow Creek respond to the negative treatment. With a good touch of grace. Check out Pastor Bill Hybels in the above video.

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August 11, 2011 | 12:55 am

Madoff’s pants on your iPad

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I think I paid $40 for my iPad cover. These ones, made from the denim of Bernie Madoff’s jeans, are a bit more expensive. Try up $500, according to the LA Times.

A new company, Frederick James, is even offering certificates of authenticity along with the lightweight sheaths. The sleeves are designed to protect the tablets from scratches and nicks, though not from drops like, say, the kind the stock market is currently experiencing.

For $250, buyers can grab one of four covers made from an off-white pair of Madoff’s J. Crew cotton khaki pants, size 34 by 30. Other options made with Banana Republic and Ralph Lauren threads are also available.

Proceeds reportedly benefit victims of white-collar crime, though no volume of Madoff iPad covers could cover the damage he did to the American Jewish community or philanthropies or the Mets.

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August 10, 2011 | 3:04 pm

Jon Benjamin has a “Jew Them Up!” sketch

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I laughed at this sketch from Jon Benjamin and David Cross, titled “Jew Them Up!” You can imagine the premise. Thanks, VideoJew.

Now, how about an over-under on how long until Daniel Tosh can go to commercial break with a “We’ll be right back with Jon Benjamin has a Van ...”?

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August 9, 2011 | 4:30 pm

AIDS on the rise in Muslim countries

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Surprising story from The New York Times about a study published in the journal PLoS Medicine that documents a surge in AIDS cases in Muslim countries. Low condom use and the secrecy associated with homosexuality get the blame. From the NYT:

About 2 to 3 percent of men in the region have sex with other men, consistent with global averages, the study found. But condom use is low, gay and bisexual prostitution is common, and many married men hide their bisexuality and risk infecting their wives. In some countries, even male prostitutes often marry for appearances’ sake.

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Because of religious taboos, accurate statistics on some aspects of health are hard to get from Middle Eastern governments. For example, international health authorities say that the world’s highest rates of birth defects are in Muslim countries where cousins are encouraged to marry but that governments are reluctant to admit it.

Here is the full report from PLoS Medicine.

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August 9, 2011 | 2:55 pm

Warren Jeffs sentenced to life in prison for sexual assualt

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS sect, has been sentenced to life in prison. From the Christian Science Monitor:

After the sentence was announced, Prosecutor Eric Nichols said Jeffs had “corrupted and perverted” his position of authority and the religious convictions of his own community to victimize women and children “to satisfy his own appetites and desires.”

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Jeffs is believed to have 78 wives, 24 of them under age 17, according to prosecutors.

Rather than focus on Jeffs’s multiple marriages, prosecutors with the Texas Attorney General’s Office presented a case based on alleged violations of the laws of consent in Texas. Twelve- and 15-year-old girls are not old enough to consent to engage in sexual activities.

Under Texas law, any sexual activity between an adult and an under-17-year-old is a sexual assault even if the minor is a willing participant. The same activity with an under-14-year-old is aggravated sexual assault punishable by up to life in prison.

Read the rest here. The real question I have is whether the conviction and sentencing will change the FLDS’ members opinion of their leader and the immorality and illegality of his actions.

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August 8, 2011 | 9:19 am

Godless morality

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Atheists are not baby eaters and, despite what Steve Harvey might think, they’re not idiots. But are they moral people?

After all, people typically develop their sense of morality from the religious teachings they grow up with. But those morals are not dependent on being a follower of the associated religion.

Along these lines, USA Today had a long opinion piece last week from Jerry A. Coyne, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of Chicago, in which he argues that morality does not come from God. After cherry-picking a few of the Bible less gracious passages, Coyne writes:

So where does morality come from, if not from God? Two places: evolution and secular reasoning. Despite the notion that beasts behave bestially, scientists studying our primate relatives, such as chimpanzees, see evolutionary rudiments of morality: behaviors that look for all the world like altruism, sympathy, moral disapproval, sharing—even notions of fairness. This is exactly what we’d expect if human morality, like many other behaviors, is built partly on the genes of our ancestors.

And the conditions under which humans evolved are precisely those that would favor the evolution of moral codes: small social groups of big-brained animals. When individuals in a group can get to know, recognize and remember each other, this gives an advantage to genes that make you behave nicely towards others in the group, reward those who cooperate and punish those who cheat. That’s how natural selection can build morality. Secular reason adds another layer atop these evolved behaviors, helping us extend our moral sentiments far beyond our small group of friends and relatives—even to animals.

Should we be afraid that a morality based on our genes and our brains is somehow inferior to one handed down from above? Not at all. In fact, it’s far better, because secular morality has a flexibility and responsiveness to social change that no God-given morality could ever have.

Read the rest here. Tell me what you think below.

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August 7, 2011 | 10:51 pm

Nearly 20 percent of Congress heading to Israel

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s almost easier to ask which congressional representatives are not going to Israel in the coming weeks. From JPost:

Eighty-one congressmen, or about 20 percent of the US House of Representatives, will visit Israel over the next three weeks during Congress’s summer recess, with the first group of 26 Democrats scheduled to arrive on Monday.

The Democratic delegation will be followed by two Republican ones, bringing a total of 55 Republicans.

Most of the representatives are freshmen congressmen, with 47 – or fully half of the freshmen Republicans voted into office in 2010 – making the trip.

For many of them, this will be their first trip to Israel.

The JPost doesn’t say, but it sounds like the overwhelming majority of these Congressman are not Jewish. After all, the Jewish make-up of the House and Senate is only about half that 81, and most of them have been to Israel before.

The delegation are being organized and sponsored by an arm of AIPAC, so you can imagine the congressional reps will be getting the dog and pony show. Though they will be visiting the West Bank and meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

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