South Africa’s rape problem

Until I read this BBC article, I had no idea the extent to which South Africa has a problem with rape. One out of every four girls in South Africa will be raped before she gets to be 16 years of age:

It is a fact that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped, than learning how to read . . . The majority of the victims are 12 years old or younger. Many of the perpetrators are themselves children . . . Sexual violence pervades society, with one of the highest reported rates of rape in the world, and an alarmingly high incidence of domestic violence and child abuse.
The article indicates that many of the rape victims are babies. It is an utterly horrible situation.

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Internet porn and sexual irresponsibility

Remember the old argument that porn encourages rape? I've always been suspicious. It would seem that men who relieve their sexual frustrations in private would be less likely to harass real life women. I've sometimes wondered, then, whether sexual assaults have decreased since Internet porn has become more readily available. Here are some rather startling statistics, and they suggest that many measures of sexual irresponsibility have decreased with the increased availability of Internet porn. This includes a decrease in sexually transmitted infections, teen sex, divorce, and rape (since 1995, rape has decreased by 44 percent). This article at Psychology Today concludes: "If Internet porn affects society, oddly enough, it looks beneficial. Perhaps mental health professionals should encourage men to view it."

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Short dramatization of the Bible story of Lot and his daughters

I attended Catholic Church for many years as a child. I don't remember even once hearing any priest feature the story of Lot, the angels, and Lot's wife and daughters at Mass. Now I know why, of course. It's just so much easier to pretend that this story doesn't even exist in the Bible. It's much easier to cherry pick in order to maintain that every word in "the Bible" is the inspired literal teaching of God. Question: Do any of readers remember ever hearing any sort of priest, preacher or minister presenting the details of the story of Lot during any worship service? Here's the animated version of the story: Now maybe you're not into kinky sex. But maybe the Bible still has something for you. For instance, are you pro-slavery? So is God:

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Darfur, lest we forget –

Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, wrote this week of a new report on the continuing human catastrophe in Darfur. In describing why he reported on what, to some, is old news, he reminded us "about the dangers inherent in indifference to the suffering of others. Stories of atrocities on the scale of those coming out of Darfur cannot be told too often."

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Popular priest chooses both his girlfriend and a new flock

The Rev. Alberto Cutié, a popular Miami Catholic priest, gave up on celibacy. The Catholic Church busted him, though and threw him out. This move by the Church was probably because the U.S. branch of the Roman Catholic Church already has lots of young popular priests. You know, supply and demand.

A popular Miami priest and media personality known as "Father Oprah" has left the Catholic Church to become an Anglican after he was photographed cavorting on the beach with his girlfriend . . . He was received into the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, in a ceremony Thursday at Trinity Cathedral and may later announce he will marry his girlfriend, which is allowed in that denomination.
I can think of a few extremely good reasons why the Catholic Church should prefer to have sexually satisfied priests instead of sexually frustrated priests. But the Church doesn't agree with me. And I suppose that God has clearly spoken that priests can't have sex. I understand that this prohibition is somewhere in the Bible . . . The Roman Catholic Church is that same church that still can't admit that a significant chunk of its clergy should be sitting in prisons for raping children. It's the same Church that disparages all efficient forms of family planning. It's the same Church that disparages women by barring them from being priests because they are . . . WOMEN. I know that a lot of us who were raised Catholic are privileged to enjoy sex extra-intensely because the Church taught us that sex is naughty. That extra enjoyment (if one can really call it that) is the silver lining of a huge dark cloud. It is hard to believe that an organization could be any more screwed up about sex than the Catholic Church. I don't understand why more U.S. Catholics don't simply walk away from Rome and form their own locally controlled churches. Here are a few founding principles I humbly offer to any U.S. Catholics who want to found their own churches: A) Don't disparage women, B) Don't be idiots about sex, C) Don't hire sexually frustrated priests.

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