After getting rejected by officials at Fort Bragg at the last minute, Sergeant Justin Griffith has resubmitted the application for Rock Beyond Belief. If it goes through, it will take place in the fall. The first attempt was not successful, but it was damn close. We received approval at every step in the arduous process, until the very last step. We are not going away. In fact, our new packet is even stronger. We even included a media analysis of… Read more
When Pastor Terry Jones burned a Koran and the ensuing violence was blamed on him, I wrote this at the Washington Post On Faith blog: As despicable as he may be, Jones didn’t do anything wrong — he certainly didn’t do anything illegal. He burned a book, but he has a right to do that. He may hate the Koran, Islam, and Muslims as a whole, but I have yet to hear him advocating violence against that community. He didn’t… Read more
Cosmo Jarvis, the artist behind the popular song/video “Gay Pirates,” has just released the video for his new song “Sure As Hell Not Jesus” — it’s catchy and has a great message: The video… is about sexual abuse scandals that have involved the followers and preachers of the catholic faith and its leaders’ frequent insidious dealings with them. It is also about the pressure that family members of victims, that become aware of the misconduct, sometimes have to endure due… Read more
I’m so glad this is finally public news. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, announced it at the group’s Convention in Des Moines this morning. For over a year now, a group of atheists representing many different national organizations have been working to put together a rally in Washington D.C. for atheists. (I was representing the Secular Student Alliance for a while, though I stepped out of that position a while ago.) We wanted to do this well before we… Read more
