As Rupert Murdoch presides over the News Corp media empire and is a desperate fight for his reputation after being forced to close his scandal-laden British newspaper News of the World, the most widely read English tabloid in the world, it has been revealed that Murdoch also owns Zondervan, the world’s largest publisher of Bibles.

Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Most people think it is a gift from God, who revealed His laws and elevates us with His love. A smaller number think that we figure the rules out for ourselves, using our capacity to reason and choosing a philosophical system to live by.

Moral naturalists, on the other hand, believe that we have moral sentiments that have emerged from a long history of relationships. To learn about morality, you don’t rely upon revelation or metaphysics; you observe people as they live.

BBC Northern Ireland presenter William Crawley has a blog post about “Hardcore Profits, a BBC documentary about the pornography industry, has been looking into those organisations who have investments, directly or indirectly, with in the adult entertainment business.”

Crawley says following a change in ethical policy guidelines the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops in 2003, Christian Brothers Investment Services now have investments of tens of millions of dollars in companies that make sizeable profits from commercial pornography. The Bishops’ guidelines permit these investments because the new rules allow the church to do business with a company as long as income from pornography does not represent “a significant portion of its revenues”.

“I was a little surprised on Sunday when my pastor took his customary sermon spot in front of the altar, holding the Scripture in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

In that day’s Gospel, Jesus healed a deaf and mute man (Mark 7: 31-37), and in that day’s paper, how to best heal the sick was a headline issue.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration’s treatment of al-Qaeda captives “constituted torture,” a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document.

The report, an account alleging physical and psychological brutality inside CIA “black site” prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

People should be able to refuse in advance medical treatment in the event of their becoming incapacitated by serious accident or illness, according to the Law Reform Commission in Ireland.

The commission also provisionally recommends that refusal of treatment on religious grounds in advance care directives be permitted. This issue has been explored by the courts recently in relation to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who, on religious grounds, do not accept blood transfusions.

Religious organizations can now place anti-abortion advertisements on Google after a lawsuit by a British pro-life charity forced it to lift the ban.

Google settled out of court Wednesday with The Christian Institute, a UK-based charity, and will now allow religious groups to place factual and campaigning ads about abortion. [video]

Ignoring America’s own plethora of human rights violations, the US State Department published its annual report grading other countries on their human rights records.

“Torture. A word that in my lifetime I would never have guessed would be associated with the United States of America. Torture is wrong. Always.”

George Bush, who claims to be a Christian, lied when he said America does not torture.

Further evidence that George Bush is a liar. He has claimed over and over again that America does not torture. But he won’t give us the practice.

The White House said Wednesday that the widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding is legal and that President Bush could authorize the CIA to resume using the simulated-drowning method under extraordinary circumstances.

Now Mr. Hamad says he’ll sue the US government for compensation for those lost years – years where his family became impoverished and one daughter became sick and died. But he says it’s not just about the money. He wants the US to return to what it used to be, a beacon of freedom. [video]

CIA finally admits: America tortures prisoners.

Media Minister Ronald Plasterk sees no possibilities nor desire for banning public broadcasters BNN and VPRO from showing the explicit porn film Deep Throat. Christian government party ChristenUnie appears to be accepting this decision.