Answering awkward questions

If you want to be a priest, you need to answer some tough questions.

Well, yeah. I would hope so.

And thanks, Bro. Jay, for the link.

Child brides in Afghanistan

The New York Times has a story today on child brides in Afghanistan. Though it is illegal in that country for girls younger than 16 to marry, the practice persists of trading off younger daughters to pay off family debts.

Responding to a case of two young girls escaping, being returned to their village by the local police, and then getting flogged in public, Fawzia Kofi, a female member of country’s Parliament, said:

I’m sure there are worse cases we don’t even know about. Early marriage and forced marriage are the two most common forms of violent behavior against women and girls.

For more information, go to Women for Afghan Women.

Hey! Connecticut’s in the news!

A federal judge ruled today that Enfield Board of Educaton cannot hold their high school graduation at a Christian church, as doing so violates the First Amendment. At issue — in part — were prominently displayed crosses.

Originally, the board rented First Cathedral in Bloomfield, but five unnamed plaintiffs — two students and three of their parents — expressed concern in a suit filed by the ACLU of Connecticut, ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

You can read Judge Janet Hall’s ruling here.

We can discuss this until — well — Jesus comes back, but this is a good decision. There are plenty of other, secular venues in which to hold a graduation. First Cathedral does good work. This is not a slam against them, but holding an important ceremony like a graduation in a religious setting was a bad idea from the start.

World’s luckiest (and most oblivious) bike rider

And thanks BuzzFeed, for the link.

You know you’re a grown-up when…

…well, I’m not sure, but every scattered once-in-a-while I realize that when disappointment strikes, you don’t have to throw something in reaction.

(I honestly have mostly stopped throwing things, I promise, but I still think about it, and sometimes even grasp an object to let it fly, which is immature, I know.)

I am driving to Nashville on Wednesday — or I very much want to — to attend a Christian Scholars Conference and to talk about my book in front of members of my Own True Church. It might be a hair-pullin’ or it just might be a healing cleansing thing or it just might be something in between.

I think I’m staying at a Holiday Inn. I think my session is on Friday morning. Then again, it might be Saturday. I’ve moved recently (and yes, I will one day stop whining about that, but not today) and the papers are…here..somewhere…

Not having a firm grasp on my immediate future used to drive me to distraction, but now that I living full-time in distraction, this kind of thing doesn’t bother me much. I will find the papers. Or I will show up stupid, smile prettily, and someone will direct my path.

And then today, while I was running errands, the engine light came in on my car, and it didn’t go off, either. And it’s Memorial Day (been to a parade yet?) and everything’s closed, and it strikes me that in times past, as I’m so very attached to my wheels, I would have had a mini-meltdown over the prospect of convincing my car repair people to squeeze me in tomorrow so that the light will be rendered dark and I can drive the 16 hours or so with confidence.

(With Mapquest as my witness, it’s 16 hours and change from my house to where I think I’m staying.)

Instead, I just called my car repair people and left a message, and I will get up at buttcrack:30 tomorrow to deliver my car in time so that I can get a shuttle in to work, work my regular shift, and hope for the best. I’ll smile prettily. It’ll work out. Or it won’t, but no bunnies will be slaughtered, no children left by the curbside, nothing will happen that won’t make a funny story later, probably.

And it’s at moments like these when I realize I’m a grown-up. Or, rather, I am one right now. I can’t speak for myself tomorrow, or even later today. But right now? I’m a grown-up. I didn’t reach for a single thing to throw.

War costs pass $1 trillion mark

On Sunday, according to the National Priorities Project, the total money appropriated for the Iran and Afghanistan wars hit $1 trillion. That’s $747.3 billion in Iraq, and $299 billion in Afghanistan.

What can you get for that kind of money, NPP asks?

• The maximum Pell Grant ($5,500) to all 19 million U.S. college and university students for the next nine years.
• Health care coverage for a year for 292,734,961 people.
• 21,598,789 public safety officers for a year.
• 17,149,392 arts and music teachers for a year.

A Christian proposal for peace

From Rev. Donald Heckman, at Huffington Post, who writes:

The World Bank estimates that one in five people on the planet live in extreme poverty. To paraphrase and extend the idea expressed by President Obama, we need a new ‘army’ of many, including especially development experts and agencies prepared to work in partnership across sectors.

Of course, the American military has already retooled to some degree to more frequently provide humanitarian assistance instead of simply military engagement. However, a more radical realignment of our resources will be necessary to attack our real enemies: poverty and oppression. Al-Qaeda and other terrorist movements would simply not be as successful in espousing their violent and separatist ideologies if our world were not so rife with angry, disaffected, and unemployed young people vulnerable to persuasion of joining their ranks.

 

Plugging the BP oil crime with BP executives

It’s a Facebook page and you can join here.

But of course, one can’t do that because it would be illegal. Sometimes, though? Comedy really hurts.

And thanks, Sis. Martha, for the link.

Exposing BP’s naked greed

By exposing one’s self.

You gotta love Code Pink. Well, you don’t “gotta,” but you probably should.

About Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell

Esquire has an interesting series of graphics about banning gays in the military — and how that stacks up with various countries’ policy on capital punishment. Check this out, and see the kind of company the U.S. is keeping.

And thanks, Sis. Gina, for the link.