What do you do when someone asks you to treat everybody equally? If you’re a kindergartner, you accept and graciously share your crayons. If you’re a Senate Republican, you throw a tantrum and create a legislative loophole. This week, 11 Senate Republicans introduced a bill called the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from taking away the tax-exempt status of churches and religious groups in spite of any discriminatory practices they may employ. The bill seems tailored to fight the impending “threat” of marriage equality, according to bill author Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), but it opens the door to allowing any kind of discrimination — as long as that discrimination can be backed up by “religious beliefs.” “What I would like to do is make sure that we go out of our way to protect churches from adverse action that could be taken against them as a result of their doctrinal views of the definition of marriage,” the Utah senator said. The bill appears to be blatantly sidestepping the post-DOMA-repeal policy that requires federal recognition of legally married same-sex couples. According to Zack Ford at ThinkProgress, the bill could provide an easy path for religious businesses, government officials, or even hospitals to deny services to same-sex couples. Read more
As noted earlier, the irreplaceable Christopher Hitchens passed away two years ago today. He earned a place in my heart forever not because he was perfect and not because he was a faultless humanitarian (he was neither). I cherished Hitchens, warts and all, because he was erudite and funny; because he was a sponge and a fountain at once. He was also, for those reasons, one of the best, most cutting orators I’ve ever seen or heard, whether he delivered a prepared speech or ad-libbed his way through a fiery discussion. Hitchens was never afraid to stake out an unpopular position, at the calculated risk of alienating those who admired him — and even at the risk of fatally biting the hand that feeds. Read more
Two years after his death, Christopher Hitchens’ legacy still looms large. With extreme faith linked to civil rights abuses around the world, his warning that “religion poisons everything” remains as true as ever. Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses why I hope religious people read this site (and follow me on Twitter): 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
United States District Court judge Clarke Waddoups got a lot of people’s attention yesterday by striking down a portion of the Utah anti-polygamy ordinance as unconstitutional. Readers who get their news by skimming the headlines aren’t going to get this one, because what happened requires ten seconds of careful reading. The court left the part of the law intact that says you can only be legally married — with a license — to one person at a time. If you’re already married, obtaining any subsequent license is still illegal. Waddoups’ ruling doesn’t change that. So why the handwringing and the cries of “Gomorrah”? Read more
One of the problems with the notion that Jesus died for your sins is that you’re pre-forgiven by the only authority you believe really matters. As for earthly justice, I have a feeling the court won’t be overly impressed by Alexander Gonzalez Garcia’s excuse for sexually assaulting an underage girl. Read more
By now, you’re all probably very sick of hearing Fox News and “War on Christmas” stories… too bad. The War is on for another two weeks. Last night, American Atheists’ Dave Silverman appeared in-studio to go head-to-head-to-head with Sean Hannity and Todd Starnes — which, according to Fox News math, is fair-and-balanced — and did a fantastic job: Read more
During their first televised debate Thursday night, the four Republican candidates to become the next Lieutenant Governor of Texas unanimously agreed that public school science curriculums needed less science and more God. Read more
