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.
Remember Kmart’s not-bad-for-Kmart “Ship My Pants” commercial? It was a play on words that angered the Christian group Few Hundred Moms. You knew there was a church just waiting to make their own Christian version of it. So when Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, FL wanted volunteers to switch from attending the more popular weekend services to the services with fewer people, they knew it was time… [Click headline for more…] Read more
As the Dallas Observer noted last week, Eagle Mountain International Church’s pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons told her North Texas congregation last week that there had been a measles outbreak… and it stemmed from a member of her church. What made that story particularly newsworthy was the fact that Pearsons’ father, celebrity televangelist Kenneth Copeland, had been a member of the Jenny McCarthy School of Bullshit, promoting the theory that there was a link between vaccines and autism even though no scientific testing had shown that to be true. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Candace R. M. Gorham is a former evangelical minister who at one point in her life was “casting out demons” and making prophecies. The spell eventually wore off. Gorham now works as a secular counselor and researcher and her new book, The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking out on Religion — and Others Should Too (Pitchstone Publishing, 2013), explores a fascinating topic: the intersection of religion and race. It reminds me of Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas? in which he questions why Kansans frequently elect people who really don’t have their best interests at heart. Similarly, Gorham asks why black women pledge allegiance to a church that has been so damaging to them? She writes early in the book: … black women are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet they are at the bottom of the totem pole in practically every measure of quality of life — physical health, financial health, mental health, and more. If the Black Church wants to take credit for all of the good things that happen in the lives of black women, it must also take some of the blame for all of the bad things. In the exclusive excerpt below, Gorham discusses religion in the black community (I added links when I thought a citation or source would be helpful): [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, Pat Robertson told a woman whose boyfriend watches porn that she should leave him… Robertson said that the boyfriend may not be addicted to pornography, “but he’s always going to be comparing you to those bosomy babes that are dancing around on those porn flicks. And you don’t want to be competing against something like that.” “If I were you I would say sayonara,” he recommended. “Leave! It’s okay. You’re not married. Walk away.” If it’s porn, walk away! It’s only gonna get worse! … which is interesting advice given that, back in May, he told a woman whose husband was actually cheating on her that she should stay with him: [Click headline for more…] Read more