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.
It’s said that desperate times call for desperate measures. In California, where farmlands have been ravaged by an ongoing drought, the desperation is certainly palpable. With government irrigation assistance cut off or strictly limited, farmers are looking for anything that will help their plants to grow. Even, as it turns out, magic: Read more
Every few years, a new series of books will take off in popularity. Be it Harry Potter or Twilight, these novels tend to lean to the fantastical side. And each time this happens, you’ll find members of the Religious Right up in arms over the grave threat such fiction presents to their children’s souls. Cries of promoting Satanism are common. While secretly yearning for an owl to deliver an invitation to Hogwarts does not a devil worshiper make, it turns out such parents may have a leg to stand on in terms of their children’s souls being “damned” — at least, by their dogmatic interpretation. A recent study published in the International Journal for Psychology of Religion found that those who engaged in imaginative play during childhood were more likely to grow up to be non-believers. Read more
The panic stricken Religious Right is at it again. Ever since the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, they’ve been scrambling to find ways to protect their discriminatory ways. Now, on Capitol Hill, Republicans are advancing a bill that would do just that… and more. As the Huffington Post explained: Read more
It’s one thing to hear those on the Religious Right ranting about the nation dissolving into a hot bed of sin. It’s one thing to hear elected officials spout ignorance backed by dogma. It’s something else entirely to see a concerted effort to overtake government with the goal of annihilating the separation of church and state. Read more
