It's been a long, strange week for religious rights. A group of Christian High School students are suing for their right to speak negatively about homosexuality, among other things. Of course, they have this right but I do wonder if the outcome woulkd be the same if this was the atheist club demanding to speak freely on the evils of Christianity (or what-have-you).

Meanwhile, Christian parents are renewing their efforts against Harry Potter, one even going so far as to complain that the books caused her daughter to convert to witchcraft. Of course, It's tough to take this "fight" against "evil" seriously when the woman leading the charge admits she hasn't read the books, and doesn't think it's necessary to do so before passing judgement. She's apparently got time to testify and rally the troops, but her kids are keeping her too busy to read the books she wants banned.

A District Court Judge in Ohio recently ruled that a six foot monument to the ten commandments does not promote religion, but that it "honors" our "legal heritage." It seems strange to me that we would do so by enshrining the same religious rules (such as "No God before me") our constitution was written to exclude. It's a bit like honoring our medical heritage by building a monument to bloodletting, or honoring health care with a shrine to exorcism.

Native Americans have had their sacred eagle feathers confiscated, because they belonged to the wrong tribe. Eagle feathers are sacred religious objects to a number of tribes, but only a few are allowed to legally possess the feathers.

Meanwhile, there are the gnostics. Gnosticism, an early, mystical form of Christianity, has gained in popularity over the years since the rediscovery of a number of lost Gnostic scriptures, and the onslaught of gnostic-themed movies and books has made it a household word. While the alternative view of the Christian story offered by the Gospel of Judas is exciting massive interest in the public at large, there are already numerous practitioners of the ancient faith, some with well established churches and clergy. But when the media wants to explain Gnosticism in its reports on the Da Vinci Code or the Gospel of Judas, it rarely turns to the practicing gnostics, but instead rely on the "expert" opinions of the historical enemies of gnosticism. It's a bit like asking a Baptist minister to give a fair and accurate description of Druidry- it might happen, but it's not very likely.

Father Jordan Stratford of the Apostolic Johannite Church sums up the typical spiel:

"We don't need to take the Gospel of Judas / Thomas / Mary seriously, because unlike Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it wasn't written in the first century, wasn't written by eyewitnesses and is not historically true. It was written by an elitist world-hating sect called the Gnostics who were rejected by early Christians as heretics. Gnostics preached that the flesh was evil, and salvation was only available to a select few who had secret magical knowledge, or gnosis."
– Every bible "expert" in the Western world in the last three weeks.

Why they're all wrong.