“We cannot live among the non-Muslims and see this evil take place,” intoned hardline wannabe cleric Anjem Choudary. Choudary, a London-based advocate of strict Islamism, was referring to the consumption of alcohol, and issued a warning to shopkeepers and restaurant staff in London’s Brick Lane area where the preacher and his following marched last Friday: Read more
Ever thought you could get arrested in an Islamic country for reading the Qur’an? It recently happened to Massood Ahmad. Masood Ahmad was arrested in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore last month when two men posing as patients questioned him about his faith and used mobile phones to secretly record him reading a verse from the Koran. Why is it a crime for Mr. Ahmad to read Islam’s holy book? Simple: He’s not the right kind of Muslim. He is … an Ahmadi, a sect that consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims, and Ahmadis can be jailed for three years for posing as a Muslim or outraging Muslims’ feelings. Outraging Muslims’ feelings, as we’ve seen time and again, is as easy as breathing. Some Ahmadis get off lightly with a prison sentence: if what passes for a justice system in Pakistan doesn’t get them, “true” Muslims might. Some mullahs promise that killing Ahmadis earns a place in heaven. Leaflets list their home addresses. Read more
On Thursday, a lovely billboard went up in Pitman, New Jersey, courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation: It’s obviously a response to those “Keep Christ in Christmas” banners and you can read more about this billboard’s history here. Over the weekend a family attempted to put their own banner — what seems to be a picture of Christ — over (or possibly under) the Saturnalia billboard… and it was caught on tape! I can’t embed it because it’s on Facebook, but you can view it here… at least for the time being. (The commentary makes it all the more entertaining: “Well, someone paid for that billboard. It’s not like you can just cover it up for free!”) Read more
Apparently there are single women who ask Pastor Mark Driscoll for dating advice. Which I guess he’s qualified to give since he once told his pregnant wife he never would’ve married her if he had known she fooled around in high school. His advice is that a single woman has six options available to her and she needs to pick one of them. (You know they’re good options because they all begin with the same letter. Hence, logic.) He wants women to choose Option #6: Solace (“take comfort… that Jesus is the Man in your life who sympathizes with your singleness”), but I had a hard time getting past Option #1: Sin. Because no woman who ever dated casually, had sex just for fun, or lived with her boyfriend before marriage has ever had a lasting relationship: Read more
I’ll admit it: It’s a savvy move on their part. The Creation Museum will allow all children 12 and under (with a paying adult) to unlearn everything they learned in science class: Because evolutionists are indoctrinating kids in the pagan religion of evolution — we want to do what we can to get as many kids to the Creation Museum to learn the truth concerning God’s Word in Genesis and the gospel. I have included the logo we are using for the ‘Kids Free in 2014’ outreach. Because kids love dinosaurs, and dinosaurs are basically used as an icon for evolution, we are using a dinosaur to tell kids they can come to the Creation Museum free in 2014. Three thoughts about that: Read more
Neil Carter, like many of us, has had his share of debates and conversations with religious people. Is it worth it? When both sides appear to be forever-committed to their ideas, why bother trying to convince the other person s/he’s wrong? He offers these five reasons for why he believes those conversations are worthwhile: Read more
Stephanie Rona walked through the beautiful secular traditions of Christmas and how, even in our country’s history, it has been possible to celebrate it without Christ. It begins at the 1:10 mark: I was pleasantly surprised by the bit at the 1:42 mark. (via Houston Oasis) Read more
Yesterday, we lost Peter O’Toole, the actor who first came to fame portraying Lawrence of Arabia. While much can be said of his brilliant career, it’s worth noting that O’Toole was the rare actor who would not have thanked God if he had ever won an Oscar. Read more
This week, Salon writer Katie McDonough published a piece about voucher systems that allow private schools with anti-LGBT policies to receive taxpayer funding, adding to the ongoing conversation about why we’re letting this stuff happen over and over again. The story has been a hot topic for the last few weeks in light of a scandal at North Carolina’s Myrtle Grove Christian School, which was eligible for a state taxpayer-funded voucher program, even though a “Biblical morality policy” determined that no LGBT students or parents were permitted. After substantial public outcry, the school announced that it would not accept any state funding due to controversy over the anti-gay policy — it would rather continue to discriminate with private money than take government money and have to accept everybody — though it appears to remain eligible for vouchers. As McDonough says, it’s an infuriating story, but not a new one. And we’ve gotten too accustomed to blowing it off: Read more
Two years ago, Josh Preville was a Pentecostal Christian. Today, he’s an atheist. The process was a difficult one but he got through it (in part by writing a letter to his family explaining his decisions). Josh is now working on a documentary in which he discusses faith with a variety of atheists and Christians. No big names; just people from both sides who have very strong beliefs and want to share them. (The guys at 0:26 and 1:49 will make you all sorts of angry.) Read more
