“It’s supposed to be white with white. Black with black. Man with woman and all of that,” Jessica Black of Craigsville, Virginia, explained to her local TV station. A reporter had asked her why she would let her seven-year-old son dress as a KKK member for Halloween — and her answer was, in part, that it’s a valued family tradition. Nothing wrong with the Ku Klux Klan, Ms. Black emphasized. Read more
Christian apologist Dr. William Lane Craig has revealed on his blog that he is scared that religion is taking a turn for the feminine: Nowhere is this feminization more evident than in contemporary worship music. Someone aptly remarked that if you were to replace references to God in many praise songs with “Baby,” they would sound just like romantic songs between a man and a woman! This is not true of classic hymns like “A Mighty Fortress” or “And Can It be?” Talking with young men, I find that many of them are just turned off by these touchy-feely worship services and would rather not go. Yeah! Remember back in the old days when worship music was strong and manly? You know why the number of young “Nones” is growing? Music. All music. Read more
It’s not every day that the mayor of a U.S. town seeks the guidance of a convicted sex criminal, especially in matters of the law. Enter George M. Allred, who wrote gushing letters to polygamist Warren Jeffs (pictured below) of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, soliciting Jeffs’ help in pressing government business — such as the hiring of a new police chief. (Jeffs, as you may recall, is serving a life sentence for sexual assaults on girls aged 12 and 15.) The Salt Lake Tribune has the story: Read more
This is a cell phone picture of blogger Rick Gonzalez’s dad, demonstratively not sharing a meal with his son and with Lucas, his four-year-old grandson. The elder Gonzalez is a Jehovah’s Witness. After his son expressed doubts about the movement, its Watchtower Governing Body promptly ordered the father to shun Rick and Lucas. This is how Rick tells it: After my mother died eight months ago, my dad, being all alone, went to the elders in the congregation he attended to see if he’d be allowed to visit with me. They said that since I was his son, he could visit with me at his house. But he could not discuss religion — nor could he share a meal with me at the same table. Two weeks ago, I called my dad and asked if his grandson and I could visit him. He said “yes” and even offered to make lunch. But shortly before serving the meal, he said that he wasn’t going to sit at the same table with us. When I asked why, his reply was, “The organization says so.” So at lunchtime, Gonzalez père took his plate and situated himself with his back to two of the people in the world who he loves the most. Because his cult told him that this is God’s way. Read more
Last week, I posted about how the American Legion Post 134 was financially boycotting the Morton Grove (Illinois) Park District because its Commissioner Dan Ashta wouldn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at board meetings. Legion Commander Joseph Lampert is withholding $2,600 from the park district until Ashta stands up. As I wrote then, the boycott has nothing to do with patriotism. It’s all about a government official not bowing down to Christian privilege and a Christian veteran not taking that fact in a healthy way. It’s as if he fought for our freedoms, but now wants to punish someone who’s exercising them. Readers of this site were eager to respond in a positive way — and you’ve pitched in more than $2,000 to make up for the park district’s lost funds. I’d like to cross that goal ASAP. Read more
Just days before the Supreme Court hears the case of Town of Greece v Galloway, the city of Pismo Beach, California just got served with a major lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation over sectarian prayers at city council meetings. In short, the Pismo Beach City Council has offered explicitly Christian invocation prayers at its meetings 125 of the past 126 times (from 1/1/2008 through 10/15/2013). That one exception still included the city’s Chaplain Paul Jones saying the Pledge of Allegiance. (And why does the city have an official Chaplain in the first place?) These are not non-denominational prayers. These are prayers to Jesus. These are prayers that promote Christianity. These are prayers that have no business at government meetings. There’s also historical revisionism in many of the prayers, the kind that would make Christian pseudo-historian David Barton proud. FFRF has the transcripts (more than a hundred pages of them, which must have taken an incredibly long time) and the invocations are simply indefensible: Read more
If you like comedy, there is much to love about this news story of a teenager who dressed up as Jesus for Halloween — starting with his mom’s penchant for inadvertent punnery. 17-year-old Marshon Sanders stepped into Highland Park High School Thursday morning wearing a white toga, red sash, sandals, a giant cross necklace and a crown of thorns. “He nailed it,” [said] proud mom Angenetta Frison. Read more
Over the weekend, the Convention on the Constitution held meetings in Ireland to discuss changes to the nation’s Constitution and then make recommendations to the government. Relevant to us is the need to repeal the blasphemy law, which currently states: The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law. Atheist Ireland has been fighting for the law’s repeal for a while now and the group’s Chairperson Michael Nugent spoke at this weekend’s convention alongside fellow advocates for the law’s repeal, Professor David Nash of Oxford Brookes University and Human Rights Officer of Atheist Ireland Jane Donnelly: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses the Friendly Atheist Book Club: More on the book club right 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! Read more
For more than a year now, I’ve been posting videos from Chris Johnson who has been working on a multimedia book about atheists called A Better Life: 100 Atheists Speak Out on Joy & Meaning in a World Without God. That book, which is now available for pre-order, will be released on January 1. Read more
