Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
A couple of weeks ago, an atheist in Tennessee delivered an invocation address, only to be cut off by the Mayor before her time was up. (It received little media coverage.) Now a similar thing has happened to a Christian pastor in Ohio and everyone’s up in arms about it. Pastor B.J. Van Aman of the Pickerington Baptist Temple in Ohio gave an invocation prayer in the State House that Just. Kept. Going. Eventually, he overstayed his welcome to the point that House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (on the far right in the image below) had to ask him to stop. You can see it happen in the video below around the 6:50 mark. Read more
I tensed up when I heard that The View was discussing whether or not an atheist could be President. After all, this is the show where co-host Candace Cameron Bure attempted to defend Creationism just a couple of months ago. But the discussion turned out to be both relevant and not-totally-horrible. Relevant because two of the current frontrunners are not known for their religiosity (though Donald Trump would love to convince the Republican base otherwise). And not horrible because some of the panelists made clear that the President didn’t necessarily have to share their faith to do a good job. Even Cameron Bure made some sense. Read more
