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.
Yesterday, the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of prisoner Kwame Jamal Teague. Teague is a Humanist who’s currently serving time at Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton, North Carolina. He would like to gather with fellow Humanists just like Christians and Jews do behind bars, but prison officials won’t let him. Furthermore, the lawsuit says, they won’t even let Teague official identify as a Humanist. (He’s currently listed as “Muslim,” the faith he had growing up.) Read more
Drew Davis and Juan Varona are two openly gay volleyball players at Erskine University, a private Christian school in South Carolina. Their sexual orientation hasn’t been a secret — it has even been publicized — but the players have often said they felt accepted within the school community. That’s why last week’s statement against homosexuality by the school took people by surprise: We believe the Bible teaches that all sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage is sinful and therefore ultimately destructive to the parties involved. As a Christian academic community, and in light of our institutional mission, members of the Erskine community are expected to follow the teachings of scripture concerning matters of human sexuality and institutional decisions will be made in light of this position. What is that supposed to mean? The monogamy part makes sense, but what does that line mean about how members of the school community are “expected to follow the teachings of scripture concerning matters of human sexuality”? Will openly gay students be expelled? No, say school officials, but they didn’t really elaborate on how they would handle that situation. I’l admit I laughed at this passive aggressive pushback on the school’s Wikipedia page: Read more
The other day, I posted about the Eastern Howard School Corporation, a school district that was frequently violating the Constitution with its promotion of Christianity. Even when confronted with the problem, district officials didn’t seem to care. Superintendent Tracy Caddell said of any potential complaints: “I mean really, what is a parent going to say — that we want you to love my child less or show them less compassion?” He wrongly equated Christianity with compassion, and that mindset permeated throughout the district. The Freedom From Religion Foundation very quickly sent a letter to Caddell. They sidestepped the more ambiguous endorsements of Christianity and zeroed in on the most obvious ones mentioned in Lauren Slagter’s story about the district: Read more