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.
Let me summarize the ACLU’s position on Kim Davis: She’s a government official who refuses to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Her rationale is irrelevant. She needs to abide by the law and do her job. If she can’t, then she must resign. Liberty Counsel, the group defending Davis, says that she is being “held as a prisoner for her religious beliefs.” In other words, because she has a religious objection to the law, the government ought to accommodate her request to not have to sign marriage licenses. Even if that means sending gay couples (who pay taxes in the county) to the next county over. Here’s the problem. That same organization said very different things when gay marriage was illegal and some government officials were giving it a green light in their own municipalities. Read more
I don’t think I’ll ever understand why some school districts advertise how they’re breaking the law… because at this point they *have* to know they can’t push Christianity onto students, right? For example, the Tallassee City Schools in Alabama should probably know better than to feature coaches praying with football players on the front page of the District’s website: That wasn’t the only flaunting of illegal religious activity. Read more
1) The woman who actually sits next to Kim Davis in this picture is not-at-all amused by the Twitter parody account @nexttokimdavis: Her name is Melissa Thompson. She does, in fact, sit next to embattled Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis. And she’s not amused. … Thompson, a deputy clerk in Rowan County, said she’s seen the Twitter feed and doesn’t think it’s funny — “not with that language.” She declined to comment further. This office’s holiday parties must be incredibly depressing… Read more
