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.
On December 30, we learned that the town council of Brookville, Indiana had voted unanimously to disallow a Nativity display that had, for the past 50 years, resided each holiday season on their county’s Courthouse lawn. This reaction was the result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of The Satanic Temple (TST) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). The county had rejected our own applications for putting up displays near the Nativity, prompting the legal action. The suit was settled, as National Law Journal explained, “with the condition that Franklin County will allow local residents and churches to erect nonreligious displays outside the courthouse.” Groups like ours only needed a local contact to file for the permit. It was a victory in the name of pluralism. That’s why it was alarming when the Christian Post completely rejected the very facts of the lawsuit and its outcome, framing the entire affair as a defeat for the non-Christian side and The Satanic Temple in particular. Read more
Yesterday, Mike Huckabee released a list of “Conservative Christian and family values leaders” who are endorsing him for President. There’s a strategic aspect to this I just don’t get. Endorsements are supposed to help you persuade people who are on the fence. If these people like me, you will too! Conservative Christians supporting Huckabee is supposed to sway who, exactly? The list includes the usual collection of right-wingers familiar to readers of this site for all the wrong reasons: The anti-gay author of the Left Behind series, an anti-gay pastor who was instrumental in defeating Proposition 8 in California, an anti-gay group leader who made a video saying gays are setting America on fire, etc. Oh. And this guy: Read more
If you’ve ever been out drinking with friends, there’s a chance you may have played “Never Have I Ever.” Someone makes a statement like, “Never have I ever… gone skinny-dipping,” and anyone who has done that takes a shot. It turns out there’s a non-drinking version of that game available online. It’s called “Never Have I Ever: The Game of Poor Life Decisions.” If you look on Amazon, some of the sample cards offered up by the company say “Never have I ever… dated my sibling’s ex” and “Never have I ever… shown up to Thanksgiving high.” Harmless fun, right? Reader Amber played the game over the holidays and was shocked to see these cards in the mix: What sort of fucked up game is this…? Read more
