Religious oppression and extreme idealism

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s holidays:  Day 7 of Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Friday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Islamic New Year (Islam).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Protect Utah's Red Rock Country”.

Topic 1:  “Study: Religion repressed in third of all nations”.  This is a serious, serious problem, especially when most of the planet at least pays lip service towards freedom of religion.  Pointing a gun at someone’s head (literal or metaphorical) may make him/her claim what you want, but it will never make him/her believe what you want.  Shame on all those repressive governments and the people who support them!  And shame on the US government for being friendly with some of these repressive governments!

Topic 2:  “Indian sect members vow to marry sex workers”.  This idea of Dera Sacha Sauda, a group known mostly for annoying Sikhs, is that men should marry prostitutes in order to get them out of prostitution and associated exploitation as well as reducing the transmission of HIV.  (Having fewer sexual partners means having few people one can catch HIV from or pass it on to.)  I am not sure whether to consider this one of the most idealistic things I have ever heard of or one of the craziest.  The crazy part is that a lot of these women have HIV and probably other sexually transmitted diseases, so there is a lot of risk to the men who volunteer for this project.  I hope there is some medical screening and treatment being performed...

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, I present (darkly) “Annoying” and (more silly) “Basement Kitteh…”

This is sort of confusing.  Basement Cat is the LOLcat version of the Devil.  The Devil is not known for eating brains, which is more of a zombie thing.

Peace, happy Ḥanukkah, happy new month, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron