Amanda is a pie-baking, music-listening, lindy-hopping, yoga-doing, power-tool-wielding feminist, atheist, and wife. She divides her time equally between cooking delicious things, trying to make nice with the house cat, and ranting about religion.
Edwina Rogers’ appointment as the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America has had the atheist blogging community in a tizzy ever since Hemant posted his interview last week. Now Greta Christina has jumped in with an audio interview (MP3) that validates many readers’ suspicions. (Additionally, a transcript of the interview is available here.) To be clear, the issue here is not about Rogers personality or intellect or even her prior involvement in the Republican party; it’s that the… Read more
I am in the middle of a riotous love affair with the television show Intervention. The affair happened quickly, mostly out of boredom and, out of the chronically bizarre array of options on Netflix streaming, it received a resounding “whatever… good enough” before hitting the “play” button. Reality shows are not usually my cup of tea, and I had my reservations about a reality series’ ability to not sensationalize an already difficult and too-often misunderstood reality of addiction, but I… Read more
When I attended Purdue University, I did my best to avoid The Exponent, the student newspaper. The reporting seemed (more than) a little lacking, the articles were frequently riddled with spelling and grammar errors, and I always tended to be more interested in U.S. politics and world affairs than the latest updates on the ice cream socials hosted by the student organizations. If I did read it, I would immediately flip through to the Letters-to-the-Editor section, which seemed to always… Read more
As I was reading Hemant’s post linking to Rachel Held Evans’ blog, I couldn’t help but feel struck by the similarities in my own experience of backing slowly away from organized religion over the past few years. I, too, felt keenly aware of the exclusivity of the club and the fickle nature of its champions; however, my criticisms of the church eventually led me to reject its foundational beliefs and not just its physical manifestation. When I look back on… Read more
Man, it’s been a good week for notpologists; in addition to Rush Limbaugh’s failed attempt at sincerity regarding his comments about Sandra Fluke and the non-committal response from all of the Republican candidates, Mars Hill has generously notpologized to the growing group of individuals that have come forward citing emotional abuse from the church and its leadership. A formal statement was issued on Mars Hill’s official website, following a news segment from KOMO, Seattle’s local news station. Here are the… Read more
