Salman Rushdie On Moral Courage

“Perhaps we have seen too much, grown too cynical about the inevitable compromises of power. There are no Gandhis, no Lincolns anymore. One man’s hero (Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro) is another’s villain. We no longer easily agree on what it means to be good, or principled, or brave. … Even more strangely, we have become suspicious of those who take a stand against the abuses of power or dogma. It was not always so.”

Easter Sunday At London’s Atheist Church

“A screen above [our] heads displayed the words ‘Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More.’ And then, our high priest arrived … [in] a patterned tie and pink skinny jeans. As he stood before his beaming congregation, the band struck up a tune: ‘Wild World,’ by Cat Stevens. Jones danced along for a while, gangly beneath the yellow lights. When the song ended, he welcomed us to the Sunday Assembly’s ‘Easter for Atheists’ service.”