Lauren Nelson is an advocate and aspiring ally focused on intersectional justice. When she's not gabbing on social media or chasing after her precocious seven year old, you'll find her researching and writing extensively on the subjects of politics, policy, culture, neurodiversity, and faith for The Friendly Atheist and Rethink the Rant.
When you’re an atheist parent whose extended family is religious, things get tricky. My parents are quite mortified that my daughter has not been (and will not be) baptized, that she has not been indoctrinated with the most familiar of Biblical tales, and that I keep our holiday celebrations secular regardless of whether or not they have religious roots. My daughter is 7 years old, and when she’s ready, I’ll teach her about a wide variety of faiths and their cultural and political histories. I’ll explain why I don’t hold any religious beliefs, and then leave it up to her to decide what she thinks is true. In the meantime, I have made myself clear on the fact that my parents are not to proselytize. There is one exception to this rule: prayer at their dinner table. Read more
If you’ve ever been to a Planned Parenthood, odds are you’ve faced the protesters. Waving pictures of mangled fetuses and warnings of hellfire, they scream at you about sin and murder and beg you to change your mind. Even in the cases where volunteer escorts attempt to shield you from the shame brigade, entering the health clinic can be a jarring experience. But every now and then, one of them will cross the picket line — even if surreptitiously and temporarily. Marie Myung-Ok Lee, writing for Salon, reports: Read more
There’s participating in #GivingTuesday, and then there’s PARTICIPATING in #GivingTuesday. Today, Facebook founder (and atheist) Mark Zuckerberg gave a master class on the latter, posting: Yep, you read that right. We’re talking like Bill Gates-level philanthropy. And those numbers may very well change as the value of Facebook stock changes (hopefully, in this context, to the upside). But that’s not even the best part of it all. Read more
Sometimes Twitter can be a vile cesspool of ignorance and bigotry. Sometimes it’s a refreshing bastion of awesomeness. Yesterday we got a little of the latter when a seemingly unremarkable picture of Pope Francis on his tour of Africa hit the web. It wasn’t long before the picture — which looks like the Pope is rapping — became fodder for comedy gold. The hashtag #PopeBars illustrated that, clearly, Franky Baby was bringing lyrical realness to the masses. Read more
