It’s not hard to spot what’s wrong with this picture … unless you’re running a Muslim school in the United Kingdom. That’s not a one-time slip-up, but a pervasive pattern at some Islamic schools, says the British Humanist Association — even though this kind of thing has been against the law for the better part of 40 years. Read more
What do you do if you’re an evangelical Christian and you’re asked about the new law in Uganda criminalizing homosexuality, sentencing gay people (in some cases) to life in prison? You distance yourself from it as much as you possibly can. Which is tough to do when your own stance is still in the realm of, “Gay people shouldn’t have the same rights that I do.” In Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s article for Religion News Service, she quotes a few Christians who attempt to explain why Uganda’s laws are bad while also implying that their own views are perfectly fine… which is like a really dark grey pot calling the kettle black. Read more
Since we often talk on this site about the need for young atheists to stand strong against religious indoctrination in their public schools, it’s only fair that we also discuss the backlash that sometimes results from that. One particular story — that has a not-so-happy-ending — began in September of 2011 at New Heights Middle School in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, a place that’s home to over two hundred Christian churches. I wrote about an assembly held at the school in The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide: Not only did [Pastor Christian Chapman] use his time to rail against atheism, evolution, and homosexuality, he told the students that “a relationship with Jesus is what you need, more important than anything else.” Christian rapper Bryan Edmonds (a.k.a. B-SHOC) later joined him onstage and performed “overtly Christian songs” for the crowd. Even the principal joined the mix by telling students to attend a local church. But that wasn’t all. Students were told to sign a pledge dedicating themselves to Jesus Christ and teachers were told to pray with students before returning to the classroom. Afterward, the public school’s own website declared that “[b]efore the day ended, 324 kids had either been saved, or had re-committed their lives to the Lord.” We know about this incident for two main reasons. First, B-SHOC idiotically posted a video of the event to YouTube (the relevant portion begins at the 3:04 mark): Read more
What happens when two women join a Christian sorority, rise to leadership positions within it, and then begin a relationship? At the UC Berkeley chapter of Alpha Delta Chi, that’s what happened to Kylie Foo and Sophia Chaparro in the spring of 2012. Their decision to be open about their relationship began a chain reaction that led to the sorority’s national board ultimately forcing the members of the group to choose between their charter and their sisters. Sara Grossman does a remarkable job telling the story in The Daily Californian: Read more
Last May, when Arizona State Representative Juan Mendez (below) delivered a secular invocation on the House floor, a Christian colleague delivered two religious invocations the following day — to make up to God for the “mistake,” I suppose. Hopefully that won’t be the case this time around. On Monday, Mendez delivered another secular invocation, this time appealing a bit more to the religious legislators in the room (as opposed to last time, when he quoted Carl Sagan): Read more
Like the 80’s Moral Majority that was neither, same-sex marriage opponents have an odd inclination to think of themselves as a mighty army, rather than as a few battalions of increasingly scattered troops. Data journalist Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog looks at the numbers: According to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, only 41 percent of Americans oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry. But that same 41 percent has a highly skewed perception of where the rest of the country stands: nearly two-thirds of same-sex marriage opponents erroneously think most Americans agree with them. And only two in 10 same-sex marriage opponents realize that the majority of Americans support marriage equality. Read more
Most people looking for asylum in the United States say they’ve been persecuted in their home country — sometimes imprisoned and tortured. Life-and-death stuff. Real terror, real danger. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are a little different. They hail from Germany, and the worst that happened to them there was that their government told them they were expected to abide by the national Schulpflicht — mandatory state-sponsored schooling for all children aged six and older. Not wishing to taint their Christian purity with the worldly teachings of Germany’s schools, the Romeikes fled to the United States — and applied for political asylum — on the invitation of a network of Christian homeschoolers represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Romeikes’ case, setting off a choir of right-wing voices howling that if we needed more proof of the Obama administration’s hostility towards Christianity, this was it. Read more
In May of 2012, 19-year-old Anthony Devaney was taking a nighttime walk when a car struck and killed him. It wasn’t long before a large cross was placed at the scene of the tragedy: Here’s a difficult question: How long should that cross be allowed to stay up? Forever? A few months? It’s not an easy discussion to have, but the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center believes it’s time for the city of Lake Elsinore (yep, them again) to take it down. In fact, the city did take it down last December… but they put it right back up after Devaney’s mother “demanded” its return. In a letter to the Lake Elsinore City Council, the AHLC says that to leave the cross up now amounts to government promotion of religion: Read more
Give Father Harry Jenkins, of the Christ Episcopal Church in Slidell, Louisiana, props for innovation: You can order your burgers at the drive-thru window. Or pick up your dry cleaning and do your banking. On Wednesday, a Slidell church will offer “Ashes to Go,” during two periods when motorists can drive by the church to receive ashes on their foreheads in observance of Ash Wednesday. Without leaving their vehicles. Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how American Atheists was booted from the CPAC conference taking place this weekend: 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! Read more
