Is a revolution brewing in Saudi Arabia? The Jerusalem Post reports an incident where the morality police got a little more than they expected:
When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition.
But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping.
A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for unmarried men and women to mix.
For unknown reasons, the young man collapsed upon being questioned by the cop.
According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.
This month’s National Geographic has a great article on Mexico’s devotion to saints- canonical and not:
“In California and Central America as well, young people light candles in La Santa Muerte’s honor and tattoo her image on their skin in sizes small to extra large. A few years ago the Interior Ministry revoked its registration of La Santa Muerte as a legitimate religion, to no effect. Newsstands sell instructional videos showing how to pray to the saint, and even chic intellectuals are beginning to say that the cult is muy auténtico.”
Don’t miss the Gallery.
It’s hardly news to anyone here that George Rekers, co-founder of the Family Research Council and one of it’s loudest anti-gay voices, was caught vacationing with a male prostitute. First he claimed he hired the Rentboy.com escort for help carrying luggage, but in a Facebook exchange, he later claimed to be emulating Jesus:
“My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes. Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them.”
Anyone who’s read the Golden Compass has a pretty good idea how author Phillip Pullman feels about the Catholic Church. Pullman’s personal beliefs have been more opaque, at least before now, with the publication of his newest work, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
Slate reviews the book, which is describes as strange, although given they don’t recognize Pullman’s rewrite of Mathew’s exhortation to his followers to be modest in their displays of belief, I’m not sure I would put much stock in that opinion without picking up a copy first. It looks to me like Pullman’s making an obvious distinction between the wise, humble Christ of the bible, and the ostentatious Christ of the Church:
“Think of the advantages if there were a body of believers, a structure, an organization already in place. I can see it so clearly, Jesus. … Groups of families worshiping together with a priest in every village and town, an association of local groups under the direction and guidance of a wise elder in the region, the regional leaders all answering to the authority of one supreme director, a kind of regent of God on earth. …Won’t you join me in this? Won’t you be a part of this most wonderful work and help bring the Kingdom of God to earth?”
It’s been a tumultuous year, as far as the right to free expression is concerned. In the US, we’re self-censoring out of fear of (possibly imaginary) violence. In the UK, attempts to be non-offensive are of themselves so offensive it’s mind-boggling.
The Telegraph reports today that a Baptist preacher has been arrested for doing what Baptist preachers are often found doing- loudly and publicly proclaiming their religious beliefs to everyone within earshot. What’s different in this case is that rather than inspiring some bemused head shaking or street debate, the attempt ended in an arrest, under a law designed to combat post-sports brawling and similar foolishness.
If one can now be arrested for voicing one’s opinions publicly any time those opinions cause offense, I can imagine the jails will become very full.
