Item: Saudi Marriage Officiant : ‘It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One’.

As long as you wait to have sex with her until she’s, oh, you know, nine. That’s when Muhammed did the deed with his wife Aisha.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu’bi: He married her at the age of six, and he consummated the marriage, by having sex with her for the first time, when she was nine. We consider the Prophet Muhammad to be our model.

When your system of ultimate truth is whatever some guy thought up, your spiritual role models become pedophiles and the mentally ill.

Question: Will gay rights trample religious freedom?

The government has acted in some way[s] to forbid gays and lesbians from being demeaned. But allowing same-sex couples to force religious individuals or organizations to act out of accord with their faith is not cost-free either. Their dignity is no less affected. Unless claims rooted in equal protection under the law are to sweep away claims rooted in freedom of religion, a more sensitive balancing approach is essential.

Shorter Marc Stern: Gay people’s right to equal treatment must be balanced by religious people’s right to discriminate against them.

WTF: Hindus in India are sending Barack Obama a rather hefty idol of Lord Hanuman the Monkey God. They think it will help him to win the election.

The idea of sending an idol of Hanuman dawned on him after friends in the United States mentioned a “prominent American politician who carried a miniature Hanuman idol in his pocket for luck,” Mr. Bhama said speaking on the first day of the ceremony on Tuesday.

“After hearing that, I decided to gift Mr. Obama a larger, gold-plated version along with the wishes of thousands of his supporters in this country,” said the leader struggling to lift the 15 kg, 21-inch brass idol.

The first-day ceremony, pranapratishta, or infusion of divine life into an idol, was performed by a dozen priests reciting mantras in tandem. It was attended by Democrats Abroad India chairperson Carolyn Sauvage, who spent over an hour at the venue.

I grew up in a very literal religious tradition, so I tend to think everyone’s a literalist, even when they’re not. Maybe they just think it would be cool to send Obama a brass monkey idol. On the other hand, maybe these are adults who think it’s all real, and they think it would really help Obama. To have a monkey idol. Which has been infused with divine life.

Damn. Hinduism has to be one of the more bizarre outgrowths of the human religious urge.