You know how pastors get a ridiculous “housing allowance”? They get to exclude the cost of housing from their reported income, so that money never gets taxed. Essentially, that means free housing, courtesy of the government, for reasons that no one can quite understand. A government commission is looking into this issue and Christianity Today has a collection of opinions on the issue. One of them caught my eye because it comes from Gene Edward Veith, provost at super-Christian-conservative Patrick… Read more
***Update***: The video is back! … Well, hand it to pastor Mark Driscoll, he doesn’t care about being politically correct. You may want to get some popcorn before watching this. It’s great. Will everyone who doesn’t know about Jesus go to hell? Yes! Yes! Yes. It greatly disturbs me when well-known pastors and preachers and authors get invited onto television studio sets where the lights are on them and the world is listening to them and the interview inquires of… Read more
You may remember Cecil Bothwell, the atheist who won an election to become city councilperson in Asheville, North Carolina. When he ran, his atheism was used against him by his opponents. Despite that, he won the race… but that didn’t stop opponents from claiming atheists couldn’t serve in elected office because it was unconstitutional. Rachel Maddow even ran a segment covering the Bothwell controversy: Of course, the law was on Bothwell’s side and he was able to keep his seat…. Read more
This is a guest post by Jonathan Figdor. John (MDiv ‘10, Harvard Divinity School) is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University as well as a board member of the Secular Student Alliance, an organization that provides support for young atheists, skeptics, and Humanists. on campuses across the country and around the globe. His new blog is called Atheologically Thinking. … As an avid reader of Pharyngula, Butterflies & Wheels, and, of course, Friendly Atheist, I was surprised to see… Read more
