Christianity

Have a look at Tracy Quan's neat piece about "The Sexiest Saint" on the Daily Beast. SITPS readers will enjoy her fresh perspective on sex and religion. She points out that contemporary people can better identify with a saint with carnal appetites than, well, saintlier figures. Quan writes, "Today's multitasking, sexually experienced woman can relate more easily to Mary Magdalene than to Mother Mary or, for that matter, Mother Teresa." Amen!

Sometimes a bit of satire really puts a debate in context:

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In this post from last August I argued that the "biology v. choice" debate, while scientifically or philosophically interesting, has no place in a discussion of human rights. I even used religious freedom as an example. This bit of satire makes the point more comically. Thanks to Kerwin Kaye for pointing me to this post on Greg Laden's blog where I first saw the video.

The New York Times today offers more evidence that when we complain about sex and violence in the media we are really just upset about the sex. The evidence? Christian churches using the violent video game Halo as a way to draw teens into church. One youth director explains: “We have to find something that these kids are interested in doing that doesn’t involve drugs or alcohol or premarital sex.” It is interesting to note that the violence in Halo gets it a "M" rating (for "mature" audiences only) which means that for the most part the young people playing the game in their church basements wouldn't be able to buy it legally on their own. Does this make youth pastors pushers of "adult material"?

Michelle Vitt looks happy enough. She’s pretty in the picture of her in today’s Jacksonville Daily News. Sitting in the Starbuck’s there on Western Blvd., in her Abercrombie T-shirt, pretty smile, lovely cheeks, cell phone and keys on the table next to her frozen coffee drink, you might think she’s just your average American college age girl. But Hope Hodge of the Daily News Staff tells us there’s something very atypical about Michelle that you can’t see in that photograph, or even in person.

While JanieBelle informs us on her blog about the seeming flood of Republican representatives and commentators who are being exposed for their participation in the sex industry (as clients, so far), I thought I'd let you know about a rather different sort of story that appeared in today's Style section of the New York Times.

It seems a former porn star is working on becoming an Episcopal minister, and he's doing it all right out in the open. No hiding.