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 it comes to religious pandering in the U.S., Republicans are easy targets. They objectively advance legislation and rhetoric that conflate church and state in obvious (and wholly inappropriate) ways on a far more frequent basis than Democrats. But when all is said and done, Democrats can and do play the same game. So why do Democrats seem to get a free pass? The Devil, as they say, is in the details. Read more
The past several years have seen an avalanche of restrictive anti-choice legislation passed at the state level across the country. Several of those bills have been ruled unconstitutional, while others are awaiting adjudication by the Supreme Court. Not to be left out of the circus, Indiana is now entertaining its own extreme anti-choice bill. Read more
Following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, conspiracy theories began to circulate. It all started with a comment made by the ranch owner who found him: that Scalia had a pillow “over his head.” This detail, paired with the fact that a physician had declared him dead over the phone and the family didn’t want an autopsy, prompted speculation about foul play and the “obvious” role of the Obama administration in Scalia’s “untimely” death. On Savage Nation, Donald Trump stoked the flames of skepticism by saying it was “unusual” that Scalia had been found with a “pillow over his face.” Conservative radio host Alex Jones, never one to miss out on a good conspiracy theory temper tantrum, proclaimed, “my gut tells me [the Obama administration] killed him.” But perhaps the most absurd conspiracy theory came from everyone’s favorite religious loon Rick Wiles. His theory? President Obama is a pagan Satan worshiping fascist who assassinated Scalia to send a message. Read more
That Ted Cruz is a walking, talking nightmare for atheists is not news. This is a man who proclaims himself a Christian first and American second. This is a man who insists that God’s law comes before man’s law. This is a man whose wife thinks he is showing the face of God to America. This is a man who has declared that God is going to help him bring America back from the abyss. This is also a man who — in a move that would be hilarious if it weren’t so terrifying — believes he is the best possible steward of the Constitution. Furthering the horror show that is the Cruz campaign, one of his surrogates sought to clarify the candidate’s Constitutional prowess for the American public while appearing on MSNBC this weekend. Separation of Church and State? Apparently that’s not a thing. Pushed by anchor Joy Reid on whether or not Secular Americans could trust Cruz to stand for them as well, South Carolina evangelical Chairman Pastor Mike Gonzalez stated: Read more
Dear Senator Rubio, You and I agree on basically nothing. I won’t pretend we do. I won’t pretend I didn’t get a chuckle out of your robotic glitching during the New Hampshire debate and the subsequent mocking. But it wasn’t just the zombie-like repetition that had me laughing. It was the substance of the comment you were repeating that really got me going. Read more
