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.
Late last week, at South Bakersfield High School in California, students gathered around the flagpole to pray before the day began. That’s perfectly fine. The problem is that Principal Connie Grumling joined them in the circle, offering her personal endorsement of Christianity while wearing her administrative hat. And then someone uploaded the picture to Facebook. (That’s the principal in the white top.) Read more
Long-term readers of this site are undoubtedly aware of Christian pseudo-historian David Barton. He makes up his own version of history, full of Jesus and light on facts, and markets it to Christian home-schoolers and the Fox News crowd. In Julie Ingersoll’s new book Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, she gives a history of his influence. Salon has the excerpt: Read more
Given all the talk about how Catholic schools are closing left and right due to low enrollment, you’d think they’d do anything they can to bring in more students. When they’re in the news, however, it’s often because administrators are firing gay teachers who commit the sin of getting married, even when the kids love them and they have the support of the parents. In Springfield (Illinois), the Catholic Diocese plans to get even stricter. A new policy has created even more obstacles for students by punishing them if their parents aren’t meeting Catholic expectations: Read more