Up until November of last year, the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board in Arizona began every one of their meetings with a prayer. Not just run-of-the-mill generic prayers to “God,” but sectarian prayers uttered by “assistants and associate superintendents” that included Christian phrases like “Heavenly Father” and “In Your Name, Amen.” It was illegal, pure and simple, so the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent them a letter warning them that a lawsuit could be imminent if the practice didn’t stop: Read more
It’s impossible, in this space, to do justice to the breadth and depth of religious insanity that writer Jeff Tietz chronicles in this riveting 9,300-word Rolling Stone story. But in a nutshell, the piece is about the suicide — perhaps the murder — of a 27-year-old writer and nurse named Bethany Deaton, who had been married just a couple of months when her body was found in October of 2012. She had been suffocated by a white plastic bag tied under her chin. Tietz’s article, from which I’ll quote below to give you a flavor, explores the disturbing social dynamic in a group (make that a cult) of about 20-25 young people, mostly college students, associated with the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, Missouri. The group’s leader was Tyler Deaton (pictured below) — “tall, handsome, haughty and effeminate” — who’d married Bethany despite the strong same-sex attractions he’d felt all his life. Read more
Churches are not supposed to engage in party politics if they want to continue to claim the tax-exempt status that costs Americans roughly $71,000,000,000 a year. That means you can’t legally run an invitation like this in your church bulletin: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, offers a response to the claim that evolution is just a theory: 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
… in which the now-divinely-inspired Jewish comedienne proposes a male-masturbation law that is not for the squeamish. Enjoy. Read more
Over the weekend, I read the fascinating and ultimately tragic story of Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt. It’s one of those pieces that elucidates just how badly our society mishandles and misunderstands transgender issues, even when the intent isn’t malicious. Reading the criticism of the piece (and Grantland’s responses to it) have given me a hell of a lot to think about, in any case. My friend Stephanie Drury, who runs the popular Stuff Christian Culture Likes website, just announced that a couple of transgender members of her community will be hosting an online Q&A session later this week for anyone who “wants to better understand trans* issues, has questions about the trans* community, or wants to learn ways to better support those in the SCCL community and trans* people in general”: Read more
Luke Austin Daugherty is a prolific artist, releasing eight albums and publishing multiple works of poetry over the past decade, but his most recent album may be the most fascinating because he gave up his religious faith halfway through the making of it: Read more
A mother in Germantown, Maryland stabbed her four kids with knives, killing two, because she thought they were possessed by a demonic entity. The two dead children — a boy, Norell Harris, 1, and a girl, Zyana Harris, 2 — were found Friday morning on their mother’s bed in a Germantown townhouse. Both had been stabbed repeatedly, police said. A sister, Taniya Harris, 5, and a brother, Martello Harris, 8, were seriously injured but are expected to survive. Zakieya Latrice Avery, 28, is thought to have carried out the attack with a housemate, Monifa Denise Sanford, 21. Both suspects said under questioning that they had been trying to dislodge the devil, CBS News reported. Read more
