Megan Wells is an IT tech and sports blogger in Chicago.
Jo Piazza at FOX News wonders: are prominent, outspoken Christians like Tim Tebow and Justin Bieber making Christianity more appealing to kids? It’s no great leap to say that children and teens admire and emulate figures like Bieber, fellow musician Demi Lovato, and Tebow. In a culture that values piety as a signifier of moral character, outspoken Christianity both brands these figures as safe role models and cushions them from criticism: “It’s not bad brand marketing,” explains Ann Neuman, the… Read more
If you’ve been hanging around the freethought communities lately, you’ve probably heard a lot about sexism. You’ve probably heard plenty of women sharing their experiences: feeling objectified, feeling dismissed, feeling threatened, feeling constantly sexualized. Does that mean every man in the skeptic and atheist communities is a misogynist douchebag? Absolutely and unquestionably not. Does the fact that not every man in the skeptic and atheist communities is a misogynist douchebag mean that these women’s experiences are invalid? Absolutely and unquestionably… Read more
We’ve talked before on Friendly Atheist about Tim Tebow’s tempting eyes. Seriously, who could resist this face? It makes me want to run out and get (re-) baptized. But once Tebow graduated, the NCAA had to spoil everyone’s proselytizin’ fun by banning messages on eye black, or as it’s called in the official rulebook, “eye shade.” So where does that leave Illini quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, whose eye black is now in a cross shape? There are two aspects to this… Read more
Robert Wilonsky, blogger for the Dallas Observer, reports that Westboro Baptist Church will protest the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas on January 2nd. Why that game in particular? Well, the participants are Penn State and the University of Houston: You can probably figure out why The Most Hated Family in America is out to get the Lions: “Penn State is like all of the universities in doomed USA: full of proud, fornicating, brutish sinners, bowing down to college sports. That’s why Jerry… Read more
Frank Deford at Sports Illustrated has an article up about the role of sports in holiday celebrations. “[S]ports are pretty agnostic when it comes to religion,” he says, and he has a point. From Thanksgiving football to the five games the NBA has scheduled for Christmas Day this year (to begin their shortened season), sports are making inroads as yet another secular focus for traditionally religious holidays. Deford writes: All that old-fashioned Currier and Ives/Norman Rockwell stuff — with the… Read more
