Which foreign languages should public high schools offer their students? Are there some that might be more useful to learn than others? I think you could make a strong argument that Mandarin Chinese and Arabic belong in high schools and administrators would be doing students a favor by offering those courses. At Daphne High School in Alabama, the sole French teacher retired last year. Instead of finding a replacement, the administrators went in a different direction: They decided to hire Sanaa El-Khattabi to teach an Arabic class: Alan Lee, superintendent of the Baldwin County school system, said Daphne High, with an enrollment of about 1,400, includes students from 30 countries, and that offering Arabic is one of many ways that the school keeps an international focus and helps its graduates prepare for the global economy. “If you look at the languages of the world, Arabic certainly would be one of the languages that I would want my own child to learn, because of the opportunities it would provide” in terms of careers and paths of study, Lee said. That makes insanely good sense. Yet, instead of praising the decision, residents of the community and parents in the district are reminding us that ignorance is still an obstacle to obtaining a world-class education. They’re making an argument that teaching Arabic is somehow pro-Islam and anti-Christian: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how a Catholic priest was excommunicated (with Pope Francis’ knowledge) for supporting the ordination of women and gay marriage: You can read more details about the story here and 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
It’s Hug An Atheist Week, when your group can raise money by offering hugs for charity: Need more of an incentive to participate?… [Click headline for more…] Read more
ABC News has the story of the sweet, sweet love that blossomed between Pastor David Love (pictured right) and Teresa Stone, a woman in his flock at the New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri. There was just one little problem: Stone was married to Randy (pictured left), an insurance entrepreneur, with whom she had two kids. He thought she loved him, as he did her. A friend of the husband recalls that “[Randy] worshipped Teresa — she meant everything to him.” Oh well. The heart wants what the heart wants. So Teresa and her pastor plotted Randy Stone’s murder — any qualms assuaged by a tidy life-insurance payout that would soon fall into their lovin’ laps. They weren’t smart enough to try to make it look like an accident or a robbery. One night, the man of God simply entered Randy’s office and shot him dead with the former Marine’s own handgun, which Teresa had given him access to. Except for Randy Stone’s life, nothing was taken. [Click headline for more…] Read more
It’s finally happened: I’ve been quoted in a commercial for a soon-to-be-canceled reality show: (Which, by the way, is better than the time I found out I appeared in an anti-gay marriage ad.) [Click headline for more…] Read more
Later this month, conservative Christians will gather in Washington, D.C. for the Values Voter Summit, a conference that will bring together brilliant conservative minds like Rep. Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Rick Santorum. If you were to sign up for the event, you would get a letter from the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins which thanks you for registering and reminds you that even one of our Founding Fathers wanted to see God in the government: James Madison, the Father of the United States Constitution said, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government: upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” Please pray with us that VVS will help equip families, churches, and communities across the United States to be active citizens that glorify God in the public square. Just one problem with that: Madison never said it. It’s nowhere in his writings. The fact that pseudo-historian David Barton quoted it in the original version of his book The Myth of Separation is just more evidence that it’s fictional. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State explains how we know Madison never said anything like this: [Click headline for more…] Read more
This is the Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford: He’s a Republican. Which is going to become painfully obvious after you hear what he wrote to a public school superintendent the other day: “If a football coach wants to lead a prayer with his players on the field after a game they should be able to do that. I believe that our law we passed (last) year would allow you to set guidelines for it. If not, I will work on a bill for it next year.” Weatherford doesn’t get how the law works. Including, apparently, the law he passed last year. That legislation — the “Inspirational Message” law, which is really the “Christians are in the majority so we’re gonna pray harder than you” law — gave students the chance to deliver religious messages at public school events provided that they alone got to choose the speaker. It added that school officials — including football coaches — could not participate in or influence the decision of whether a prayer would take place or who would deliver it, a fact that Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning reiterated to his principals last week. [Click headline for more…] Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I posted an excerpt from Matthew Stillman’s new book “Genesis Deflowered,” which eroticizes the Book of Genesis. Last week, on the doorsteps in front of Matthew’s home in Harlem, he was greeted with misspelled graffiti reading “Blasphmy.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you do any sort of writing about secular parenting, Karen Loethen would love to hear from you for a new Blog Carnival she’s starting up (hey, remember those?!) If you are blogging on secular parenting, this carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers. If you are a secular parent, this carnival is to bring good writing to you from others who are DOING IT! That’s precisely the benefit to participating. This is the sort of thing that can introduce you to a new readership and expose you to other writers in the same boat. If you’d like to submit a recent post, all the information you need is on Karen’s site. Read more
