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.
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life put together a slideshow explaining the trends between religious groups and political party identification. There’s nothing in it you couldn’t have predicted yourself, but here are a few of the highlights: The “Nones” need to be more like Black Protestants — we’re only about 2:1 in favor of the Democrats while they’re more like 9:1. … 11% of the Republican or Republican-leaning voters are religiously unaffiliated: … 24% of the Democrat or… Read more
Last February, Lenior City High School senior Krystal Myers wrote an article for the school newspaper called “No Rights: The Life of an Atheist.” The administrators refused to run it because they thought Myers’ exposing the Christian privilege in the school was too controversial. (The Knoxville News Sentinel later ran the full article on their website.) A couple of months later, the school yearbook featured an article by Zac Mitchell called “It’s OK to be Gay.” The administrators were unhappy… Read more
Phase Four of the Secular Coalition for America’s plan to create state chapters across the country begins next week with conference calls for people interested in creating the chapters! If you’d like to help be a part of the SCA’s efforts in the Phase Four states, all the details are at the links below: Delaware Washington, DC Idaho Illinois Louisiana Maine Maryland Nevada New Jersey Oregon Wisconsin Be a part of the change and call in if you’re from that… Read more
When it happens, you have to give credit where it’s due. Here’s Christian theologian Caryn Riswold talking about why it was wrong for the Democrats to put God back into their party platform even though the reference wasn’t needed: My beliefs in and about God do not need to be imposed on everyone else. That’s not what a pluralistic democracy looks like. This issue is also what has been at the core of so much of this year’s discussions about… Read more
Bryan Roberts, writing for the magazine RELEVANT, tries to urge his fellow Christians to rise above the hyper-partisan discourse. Among his reminders to other Christians: “Those who argue over politics don’t love their country more than others” and “Thinking your party’s platform is unflawed is a mistake.” Obviously, he has his target audience, but it was this bulletpoint that caught a lot of readers’ eyes: 1. Both political parties go to church. There’s a Christian Left and, perhaps even less… Read more