Today World Vision made an announcement that it’s changing how it handles LGBT employees, and IMO in a very good way. Previously, they required employees to either be in heterosexual marriages or to abstain from sexual activity. As I understand it, the old policy meant that if you were gay you couldn’t work there and be involved in even a long-term ( Read more... )

The Religion Clause blog [discussion of legal experts on religion and the law] linked to an interesting journal article looking at the best law schools for “devout” law students. The article ranks schools based on “percentage and activity of students who belong to the faith; percentage and activity of faculty who belong to the faith; number of ( Read more... )

Last night Steven Moffat & Co. shared a seven minute mini-episode of Sherlock, as a kind of Christmas gift for the Sherlock fans. You can watch it here (at least in the US) and I know it’s also available on the BBC Red Box service. I’ve bounced in my seat collectively with other fans, I’ve cried, I’ve rewatched it a few times - and, me being me and ( Read more... )

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This morning I woke up to an internet full of push-back against an interview Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame gave in GQ. He came out pretty strongly anti-LGBT and even recalled the Jim Crow days of his youth fondly.

I didn’t agree with him at all, but I also wasn’t outraged because I wasn’t surprised. That doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t ( Read more... )

I am a Sherlock fan. You know, just in case there was any doubt. For most of you that read this blog regularly I really doubt there will be much of a question on that point, because I talk about it a fair amount around here. But this post is also written for the December 2013 synchroblog and I hope some people will read this who wouldn’t regularly ( Read more... )

I’m supposed to be sleeping, or at least tidying up the packing (so nearly there!), but I thought some of you might find Leah’s recent post over at Patheos on the way different fantasy series relate to morality.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unequallyyoked/2013/12/raising-the-stakes-in-stories.html

To my great shame, out of the books and series she ( Read more... )

There’s a rather popular Tumblr post where tiger-in-the-flightdeck wrote:

Do you ever get the impression that Benedict and Martin are convinced they are creating two entirely different shows? Like Benedict thinks he’s playing the lead man in a thrilling crime drama with a spunky sidekick; while Martin is the lead actor in a heartbreaking ( Read more... )

I’m dealing with a situation with my insurance company that simply should not be allowed to happen. It’s not the insurance company’s fault, I don’t think, or my doctor’s, or even mine. I’m not trying to point an accusing finger at any of the individual players involved. That doesn’t make it okay.

A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with ( Read more... )

Over at I Love You But You’re Going to Hell (a nifty little site on conservative reactions to issues in American education), Adam Laats wrote about an interesting way some conservative pundits talk about the first Thanksgiving. Not only were the Plymouth Bay colonists collectivists in Rush Limbaugh’s words, flat-out Marxists (anachronisms aside) ( Read more... )