Todd Starnes of Fox News Radio has this nasty habit of creating material for Snopes to debunk. He takes misunderstandings, slaps a “Christian persecution” tag on them, and fails to apologize when his story turns out to be wrong. For his latest trick, he tackles a story about a young Florida student who just wanted to pray before eating lunch… but a teacher stopped her: Read more
As we’ve seen, the owners of Hobby Lobby, a national chain of craft stores, don’t like the part of the Affordable Care Act that would oblige them to cover emergency contraception in their employees’ healthcare plans. It’s against their religious beliefs, you see. So Hobby Lobby took its fight all the way to the Supreme Court, where a ruling is expected in June. Meanwhile, we can all marvel at these facts, unearthed by Molly Redden at Mother Jones: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses 8 problems with “purity balls”: You can read more about purity balls here. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next! And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon. Read more
The Secular Coalition for America has released its 2013 Congressional Report Cards and things aren’t looking all that great. (Though it’s slightly better in the Senate than in the House.) First, the U.S. House of Representatives: Read more
Short of a miracle, Benito Flores is lost at sea and must be presumed dead. He gave his life to help other people get all wet baptized. A California man remains missing a day after he was swept out to sea during an ocean baptism. Benito Flores, 43, was among several people helping his cousin, Pastor Maurigro Cervantes, baptize a man near the Guadalupe Dunes Preserve north of Santa Barbara. Two others were swept out by a huge wave but were able to swim to shore. Read more
Blogger Kristen Howerton, writing for On Faith, asks Christians what she perceives to be a vital question: Christians will likely continue to be divided over the issue of same-sex marriage and relationships. But unfortunately, these debates seem to be taking center stage as we interact with the world. Is this what we want to be known for? My hope is that we can begin to make peace with each other over this issue and move forward despite our differences, and put the focus back where it’s supposed to be: sharing God’s love. “Is this what we want to be known for?” That’s a great question… 10 years ago. Now, it makes about as much sense as asking people if they still prefer their CD players over their iPods. The majority of us answered and moved past the gay marriage question a long time ago. The better question is: “What’s taking Protestants so damn long to do the same?” Read more
Remember how, earlier this year, Gideons International was allowed to leave Bibles at a Kentucky public elementary school for children to pick up? And remember how atheist groups wanted to take advantage of the same rules and leave books promoting Humanism at the school? Well guess how that went? Read more
Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book is about to be released. It’s a memoir — her first — called Living With a Wild God. A “Wild God”? Isn’t Ehrenreich an avowed atheist? This is in the publisher’s description over at Amazon: Read more
Last week, I told you about how third grader Olivia McConnell wrote to her state representatives earlier this year with a request: South Carolina didn’t have an official state fossil, so could the Wooly Mammoth claim that title? … Olivia gave her reasons: 1. One of the first discoveries of a vertebrae fossil in North America was on an S.C. plantation when slaves dug up wooly mammoth teeth from a swamp in 1725. 2. All but seven states have an… Read more
